desegregation (n.)

active word-forming element in English and in many verbs inherited from French and Latin, from Latin de "down, down from, from, off; concerning" (see de), also used as a prefix in Latin, usually meaning "down, off, away, from among, down from," but also "down to the bottom, totally" hence "completely" (intensive or completive), which is its sense in many English words.

As a Latin prefix it also had the function of undoing or reversing a verb's action, and hence it came to be used as a pure privative — "not, do the opposite of, undo" — which is its primary function as a living prefix in English, as in defrost (1895), defuse (1943), de-escalate (1964), etc. In some cases, a reduced form of dis-.

1550s, "act of separating" (a sense now obsolete); 1610s, "act or action of segregating, separation from others," from Late Latin segregationem (nominative segregatio), noun of action from past-participle stem of segregare (see segregate). Meaning "state or condition of being segregated" is from 1660s. Specific U.S. sense of "enforced separation of races" is attested from 1883.

"abolish racial segregation" (in schools, etc.), 1948, back-formation from desegregation. Related: Desegregated; desegregating.