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➕ To add to group 🤝 To win over 💡 To take for self
to co-opt

to co-opt

7.2
Use someone else's idea as your own without permission
  • verb
  • /koʊˈɑpt/
translation icon : apropiarse de
  • People who have dramatic accidents that basically take out a whole chunk of their brain can be taught to Co opt other parts of the brain to then control that part.

The word love and the experience get Co opted.

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Examples

  • So genes evolve in one context, then they tend to be repurposed or Co opted that process to, to, to operate in another context.

    Robinson Erhardt

  • And I think the term ramen or like instant ramen has been like Co opted a little bit by the instant noodle like world.

  • So they picked up they Co opted the winter solstice or whatever it's called.

  • And then this is the AGO where the the work that I'm sort of Co opting comes from.

  • Because because they Co opted it OK, whereas the the borders and their thing no and borders OK, next.

  • You know, the the content industry often tries to use and Co opt government to enforce their own monopolies.

  • Like there there seems to be a lot of, you know, kind of commercial Co opting of people's interest in in environmentalism.

  • We also saw a lot of sort of Hamas paraglider, graphic design, Co opting by BLM and by DSA groups in the US.

  • So that was an acknowledgement that there was a real Mandarin character that was not happy about the Ben Kingsley, you know, Co opting of the name.

  • The company decided to co-opt popular social media trends to promote its new product.

Synonyms

to borrow
vsto co-opt
107 2.6

To take an idea or method from someone else and use it as your own

often does this without permission or proper acknowledgment
to plagiarize
vsto co-opt
  • US
23 6.8

To copy someone else's words or ideas and claim them as your own without saying where they came from

may adopt ideas for use without always claiming full authorship
to lift
vsto co-opt
17 7.5

To use someone else's words or ideas without giving credit

is broader applying to ideas or methods beyond writing or speech
to poach
vsto co-opt
16 7.0

To take someone else's workers, ideas or clients unfairly for personal gain

focuses on taking ideas for use, not necessarily illegal or unfair

Antonyms

to reject
839 1.9

Refuse to accept someone or something

How Adopted

to plagiarize
  • US
23 6.8
to appropriate
  • Offensive
19 9.0
to co-opt
7.2
to borrow
107 2.6
to adopt
440 3.2
to adapt
178 3.2

Surface Forms

co-opt infinitive
co-opted past
co-opted past participle
co-opting present participle
co-opts third person singular

Morphology

co-opt = opt (semi-transparent) = co + opt

The word is formally co- + opt, but the sense 'appropriate or adopt an idea' is a semantic extension (metonymic/figurative) from selecting to taking ownership.

Etymology

Co-opt comes from the parts co- ('with') and opt ('choose'), the same root as option, so to co-opt an idea is to 'choose' and take it into your own use, often using it as if it were yours.