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Antonyms for Ingest

A tech professional wants a word that means the opposite of ingest, as in ingesting a video. Specifically, he needs something that sounds like it’s worth 200 bucks an hour. Divest, maybe? This is part of a complete episode.

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9 comments
  • I can relate to this problem. I have been a videographer since 1982. We prefer the term “extraction”. “Delete” sounds like you only hit a key on a computer and the job is done. Editing is more complicated requiring timing, pacing, and often coordination of multiple lines of video and multiple layers of audio too. A dentist does an extraction. It is a procedure requiring skill, equipment, and support staff. Firefighters do an extraction. In the case of search and rescue doing an extraction from a “hot zone” there is some personal risk involved too. Video editing at least does not usually go that far, thank goodness. It also requires an artistic sensibility. It is more nuanced than “delete” don’t you think?

  • For the opposite of the word ‘ingest’, used in the video editing industry, I’d suggest the word ‘regest’.

    Collins dictionary lists one definition of this word as “to retort or cast back”
    If the word ‘ingest’ is used in the video editing industry to mean “the insertion of a video clip”, then ‘regest’ might be a good word to indicate “the removal of a video clip”.

    …tom in Kenosha.

  • While I can’t think of an antonym I did want to mention that this term is used as a standard term in space communications. I work with scientific satellites at NASA and we use the term to refer to the processing of getting the data stream from a satellite into a processor. Ingest seems to imply no filtering or discrimination, just pipe it in. With that use, there really isn’t an antonym. I have heard “outgest”, but it isn’t universal. Clearly NASA doesn’t know of an antonym either.

  • We use *purge,* usually related to removing files from a projection server system.

    Example: “Erica, before ingesting tonight’s feature, please purge the content from last weekend’s film festival.”

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