Recentres

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To adjust or reposition something at the center or midpoint
2. To establish a new central point for an object or concept that has been dispersed
3. To reorganize or realign elements to focus around a newly defined center

Etymology: "Recentres" is the third-person singular present form of "recentre," so the history belongs to the verb itself. That verb is built from two familiar parts: the prefix "re-," meaning again or back, attached to "centre." The root "centre" comes from Latin "centrum," borrowed from Greek "kentron," meaning a sharp point or the point of a compass, which is why the central idea of a middle point has always been bound up with the notion of a fixed pivot. Put together, "recentre" means to bring something back to the middle after it has drifted away from it. The prefix does the work here: a politician who recentres a campaign, or a photographer who recentres a frame, is returning the subject to the midpoint rather than placing it there for the first time. The verb is a straightforward combination of a common prefix with an existing noun-turned-verb, so its meaning follows directly from its parts.

Synonyms: re-centers, repositions

Antonyms: displaces, off-centers