Recentered

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To move or adjust something again to the central or middle point it originally had
2. The act of returning an object or focus to its original midpoint or balanced location
3. Placing something once more so that it aligns with the center or middle from which it was shifted

Etymology: "Recentered" is simply the past tense and past participle of "recenter," which means to bring something back to its central point after it has drifted away from it. The verb is built from the prefix "re-," meaning "again" or "back," attached to "center." That noun reaches English through a long chain: Ancient Greek "kentron" meant a sharp point or the pointed end of a compass, and Latin borrowed it as "centrum." Old French and then Middle English took it up as "centre" and "center," and the Latin-based sense of a midpoint carried over intact. The result is a compound that is far more recent than its parts. Because "re-" can be attached to almost any verb or noun in English, "recenter" needed no special invention, only a speaker who wanted to say that something had moved off its middle and was being restored there. Its meaning is therefore exactly what its pieces suggest, which is a plain, transparent formation rather than a word with a dramatic backstory.

Synonyms: realigned, repositioned