debilitate

Here’s the sneaky trick hiding in plain sight: this word doesn’t just mean “make weak,” it means “take capability away.” The Latin pieces are a little linguistic shove and a little broken tool—de for “away” and habilis for “able, fit,” the same family that gives English words like habilitate and the more formal habile. Put them together and you get dēbilitāre, a Roman way of saying someone or something has been knocked from the category of the capable. The English form shows up in the 1530s, when learned borrowings from Latin were marching into English like well-dressed guests with very sharp knives. Think of it as the opposite of ability: not just weakness, but ability itself being hauled off the stage.