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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”).
Synonyms
Examples of usurp in a Sentence
Kelli Bender, People.com, 31 Oct. 2024
While the citizens decide to build a firewall to keep out newcomers (A King and Queen potentially showing up and usurping Prince and Princess?
—David John Chávez, The Mercury News, 30 Oct. 2024
But recent elections have seen the far right increasingly usurp centrist conservatives as the main right-wing force.
—Alexander Smith, NBC News, 13 Oct. 2024
With prestigious institutions from Georgetown to Carnegie Mellon setting up campuses, Qatar has been able to project an image as the center for higher learning in the Middle East, usurping a position once held by far more populous countries such as Egypt and Lebanon.
—Allen Fromherz / Made By History, TIME, 30 Sep. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Usurp.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/usurp. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
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Legal Definition
usurp
verbLatin usurpare to take possession of without a strict legal claim, from usus use + rapere to seize
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