Etymology

dephlogisticate

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Today it means: To take away the phlogiston, i.e. ability to burn, which is now understood to be chemically impossible Full definition →

French déphlogistiquer
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The story

  1. French · derived fromdéphlogistiquer“to dephlogisticate”
  2. English todaydephlogisticate

From de- + phlogisticate, after French déphlogistiquer (“to dephlogisticate”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.