Reactivate

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To restore something to an active or functional state after it has been inactive or dormant
2. To bring back into operation or use something that was previously inactive or not in service
3. To make something operational again after a period of inactivity or dormancy

Etymology: The word is simply "re-" attached to "activate," and the tree shows that "activate" itself reaches English through a long chain: Latin "agere," to drive or do, gave rise to "actus" and then "activus," which passed through Old French "actif" into Middle English as "actyf." Its root sense is one of motion and doing rather than energy in the modern sense. The Greek contribution is more recent than it looks. "Energetic," from Ancient Greek "energētikos," meaning active or operative, sits on the same family tree, and English "active" came to share the Latin route by way of French. The English verb "activate" was then formed by adding the "-ate" ending, the usual way English turns an adjective into a verb meaning to make something so. "Reactivate" is a plain compound: "re-," meaning again, from Latin "re-," joined to "activate." The prefix has been part of English since the Middle English period, which is why it attaches so readily to verbs formed in later centuries. The result is a word whose literal meaning is to make something active once more.

Synonyms: restart, revive, reinvigorate, renew, resuscitate

Antonyms: deactivate, discontinue, halt, stop, suspend