evict
Meaning
to force someone to leave a house or land, especially with the support of the law
Structure
Usage
the landlord threatened to evict the tenants for not paying rent.
they were evicted from their home after the foreclosure.
the court order allowed the authorities to evict the squatters.
Etymology
the word 'evict' originates from the latin verb 'evincere', which means 'to overcome, to vanquish, or to prove conclusively'. this latin term is a compound of the prefix 'e-' (meaning 'out') and the verb 'vincere' (meaning 'to conquer'). in roman law, 'evincere' developed a specific legal sense of recovering property by judicial process, which evolved into the english meaning of expelling someone from property by legal authority. the modern abstract meaning thus retains the core idea of a forceful removal, but channeled through the formal, legalistic sense that developed from its latin legal usage.
Analysis
e- (a prefix from latin, meaning 'out of, from'); vict (a root from latin 'vincere', meaning 'to conquer')