Rebroadcast

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To retransmit a previously aired signal or program for the purpose of reaching more listeners or viewers
2. To deliver again audio or visual material that has already been shared to engage a broader audience
3. To send out again a program or signal that was broadcast earlier to reach additional audiences

Etymology: The verb "rebroadcast" is a straightforward compound: the prefix "re-", meaning "again", attached to "broadcast". The prefix came into English from Latin "re-" by way of Old French, and it is one of the most productive word-builders in the language, so "rebroadcast" simply means to send out again something that has already gone out once. The older half, "broadcast", has a much more literal past. Its ancestor was an agricultural action: to broadcast was to scatter seed by hand across a field rather than dropping it in rows. The word joined the language in that sense, and its later meaning of sending signals out to a wide audience was a figurative extension of the same idea of scattering in every direction. "Rebroadcast" carries that picture forward: a program is cast out again, to a new scatter of listeners.

Synonyms: retransmit, relay, recast, reissue, replay