To know the meaning of the term dissipate, it is necessary, first of all, to discover its etymological origin. In this case, we can establish that it is a word that derives from Latin, specifically from “dissipare”, which can be translated as “spread” or “vanish”. Exactly that verb is the result of the sum of two clearly delimited components: the prefix “dis-”, which is synonymous with “separation”, and the verb “supare”, which is equivalent to “throw”.
It is a verb that refers to making something, through the separation or dissociation of its components , fade away .
For example: “After the accident, the police tried to dissipate the vehicle congestion,” “To prevent the structure from deforming, it is essential to dissipate the energy through some mechanism or procedure,” “Once the congestion was finished dissipating,” clouds, the game began.”
Synonyms for this term include waste, disperse, scatter, evaporate and even volatilize. On the contrary, antonyms include from appear to gather, among others.
Dissipating heat is an action that must be carried out on different types of devices or machines to avoid damage to some of their parts. To achieve this objective, it is common to install an instrument known as a heatsink , which allows heat to be transferred to the air. In this way, the temperature of the element that tends to overheat is lowered.
Computers have heatsinks to protect elements such as the microprocessor and graphics card . As these objects become hot when operating, it is necessary to dissipate the heat: otherwise they may fail and be ruined. A copper or aluminum heatsink allows heat to be extracted from the part to be cooled and then expelled into the air.
The word that concerns us now is also used a lot in colloquial language. Specifically, it is used to indicate that a carbonated drink, the one that has bubbles, has lost these and, therefore, is no longer liked as much. An example of this use would be the following sentence: “The child did not drink the cola because he said he was dissipated.”
The idea of dissipating is also used in reference to making something, symbolically, cease to exist or disperse : “The mayor was in charge of dispelling the journalists' doubts in a conference that lasted more than an hour,” “This defeat did not It will dispel our illusion: we still hope to win the title,” “The official presented his resignation to dissipate tensions.”
Within the field of literature and culture, the term dissipate is also used. A good example of this is the book titled “The Book of Paths. Manual to dispel doubts, dispel myths and claim rights.” Rafael López Monné and Xavier Campillo Besses are the authors of this work that presents the historical communication routes in Spain as well as their layouts, characteristics, current state and even relevant events that occurred around them.