Deautomate

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To reverse the process of mechanizing or automating a task, restoring it to manual operation or control; to remove or reduce reliance on automated systems in a procedure; to transition from automated to human-based execution
2. To undo the application of automated technology to a function, shifting responsibility back to human operators; to dismantle or withdraw automatic processes from an activity; to change a system from automatic to manual control
3. To convert an operation or process from being governed by automated mechanisms back to being performed by people; to withdraw automation efforts previously applied; to revert to non-automated methods in handling a task

Etymology: "Deautomate" is a formal back-formation built from "automate" plus the reversing prefix "de-", a pattern English has used for centuries (as in "decentralize" or "defrost"). "Automate" itself was coined in the 1950s, a clipping of "automation," a term the Ford Motor Company's engineering staff popularized around 1947 to describe the increasing use of automatic devices on production lines. The noun "automation" was in circulation before the verb, so "automate" was formed back from it, and "deautomate" followed the same route. The word is rare and mostly appears in technical, industrial, and policy writing, where it describes deliberately pulling a function back from machines to people, such as restoring manual control of a process after an automated system has failed or proved unreliable. Its earliest uses are hard to date precisely, and it is not well documented in standard dictionaries before the late twentieth century.

Synonyms: manualize, deautomatize

Antonyms: automate, automatize