Reattach

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To fasten or fix an object back to its original place or position after being separated
2. To join or secure something once more to the part it was previously connected with
3. To reconnect or affix an item again to the place from which it was detached

Etymology: "Reattach" is a plain formation: the prefix "re-", meaning "again" or "back", added to "attach". The prefix comes from Latin, and it has been used in English freely to build new verbs from existing ones, so "reattach" needed no special coinage. Its meaning follows directly from its parts: to fasten something again to the place it was separated from. The base word has a more eventful past. "Attach" passed into English through Old French "atachier", which was built from "a-" (from Latin "ad", "to") and "estache", a stake or post, perhaps tracing back to a Germanic word for a stake. The original sense was literally to fix something to a post or stake. Over time the idea of physical fixing widened into the figurative senses found today, such as attaching a document or attaching importance to something. Because "reattach" is a transparent compound of "re-" and "attach", it inherits that whole history in one step: the sense of "fixing to a stake" lies underneath it, and "re-" simply adds the idea of doing it once more.

Synonyms: reconnect, reattune, restore, join, link

Antonyms: detach, disconnect, separate, unjoin, unlink