Depersonalization has the etymological history Formed from depersonalize (de- plus personalize) plus the suffix -ation; personal is from Latin personalis, from persona ('mask, character, person'). The ancestry passes through Latin de- and Latin persona. The prefix de- often marks removal, reversal, or downward motion in Latin formations, helping to explain the word's surface structure; the suffix -ation marks an action, process, or result, so the English form is shaped by recognizable word formation as well as by its inherited or borrowed base. In present use as a noun, it means "loss of a sense of personal identity or of reality's familiarity", keeping the historical formation close to the word's ordinary semantic work. Related words include person, personal, personalize, and depersonalize.