Word of the Day

: October 27, 2024

usurp

verb yoo-SERP

What It Means

To usurp something (such as power) is to take and keep it by force and without the right to do so. Usurp can also mean "to take the place of by or as if by force."

// Some people have accused city council members of trying to usurp the mayor’s power.

// We cannot allow lies to usurp the truth.

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usurp in Context

“[Kazimierz] Pułaski, like other Poles in the 1770s, hoped for the American republic to live because he was watching the Polish republic perish. Pułaski was a veteran of wars with Russia. Catherine the Great, a German princess, had usurped the Russian imperial throne after the murder of her husband in a coup d’état in 1762.” — Timothy Snyder, The Atlantic, 15 Sept. 2024

Did You Know?

While often associated with questionable behavior by the royals of eras past, usurp retains its usefulness today. It’s still typically applied when someone takes power without authority or the right to do so, though the power taken is not necessarily political and the question of right and authority may be subject to debate; a city council usurping a mayor’s power is a more traditional use of the word, but one product can be said to be usurping market share from another, and one athlete may claim to have usurped GOAT status. The usurpation can even be sartorial: Amanda Mull, writing for The Atlantic, noted how tracksuits in the 1980s “usurped much of cotton sweatpants’ momentum toward legitimate coolness.” Usurp comes from Latin: usurpare, meaning “to take possession of without a legal claim,” was formed by combining usu (a form of usus, meaning “use,” which also led to the words usually and use) and rapere (“to seize”).