usurp means to seize and hold or use (powers, an office, a coat of arms, a right or copyright, etc) from another, without right (usually by illegitimate means). It carries an Arena rating of 1558, earned across 6 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, usurp ranks #209 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #637 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #681 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #1,247 of 42,789 for Qualifying.
usurp is pronounced /juˈsɝp/.
Why “usurp” is a great word
To seize and hold a position, power, or right that belongs to another, typically by force or without legal authority. From Middle English usurpen, from Old French usurper, from Latin ūsūrpāre ("to take into use, seize for use, usurp"), from ūsus ("use") + rapere ("to seize"). Unlike "supplant," which implies replacement through cunning or merit, or "appropriate," which suggests a taking for use, often without permission but lacking political weight, to usurp is the theft of legitimacy itself. It is the gloved hand on the crown, the general at the palace gates, the signature forged in the dead of night—the particular treachery of power stolen rather than earned, always shadowed by the knowledge that what was taken by force must be held by force, until force itself turns.
Etymology
From Middle English usurpen, from Old French usurper, from Latin ūsūrpō.
verb
- To seize and hold or use (powers, an office, a coat of arms, a right or copyright, etc) from another, without right (usually by illegitimate means).e.g.“[S]o he dies,
But soon revives, Death over him no power
Shall long usurp […]” — 1674, John Milton, “Book XII”, in Paradise Lost. […], 2nd edition, London: […] S[amuel] Simmons […], →OCLC, page 326:
- To take the place of someone or something else; to supplant.
- To make use of.e.g.“"[…] especially considering that even Matter it self, in which they tumble and wallow, which they feel with their hands and usurp with all their Senses […]"” — 1653, Henry More, “appendix”, in An Antidote against Atheisme, or An Appeal to the Natural Faculties of the Minde of Man, whether There Be Not a God, London: […] Roger Daniel, […], →OCLC:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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