Readdress

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To speak to or direct attention toward again or in a new way ; to mark or label mail with a new or different destination address
2. To reconsider or approach a topic anew ; to change the mailing label on an item to reflect another address
3. To handle a matter once more or from a different perspective ; to redirect postal items by placing a fresh address on them

Etymology: The verb "readdress" is a plain formation: the prefix "re-", meaning "again" or "back", attached to "address". The base "address" has a longer history than its everyday sense suggests. It descends from Latin "dīrēctus", "straightened out" or "set in a straight line", from the verb "dīrigere", to direct. That Latin sense of putting something in a straight line passed through Vulgar Latin "dīrēctiāre" and Old French "adrecier", meaning to set upright or guide, before reaching Middle English as "adressen". The sense of speaking to someone, or of writing a name and destination on a letter, grew out of this idea of guiding something toward a point. To address a person was to aim your words at them, and to address a letter was to point it toward its destination. "Readdress" carries this over: to readdress a matter is to aim your attention at it once more, so that it can be reconsidered.

Synonyms: redirect, reassign, reorient