Reclaim

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ɹɪˈkleɪm/

Definitions

1. To recover or take back something that was lost, given away, or taken from you
2. To regain possession of something that has been lost, surrendered, or deprived from oneself
3. To regain ownership or control of something previously lost or surrendered ; to convert unused or damaged land or resources back into usable condition

Etymology: The verb "reclaim" comes into English from Anglo-Norman and Old French "reclamer," and its Latin ancestor "reclāmāre" originally meant "to cry out against" something. The Latin verb combined "re-" (back, against) with "clāmāre" (to shout), so the earliest sense was closer to protesting loudly than to getting anything back. Medieval Latin speakers and lawyers stretched that sense toward objecting to a decision or calling something back, and the notion of demanding the return of property grew out of that idea of loud, insistent protest. In Middle English the word appeared in several spellings, including "reclaymen" and "recleymen," and it carried the sense of calling back or demanding restoration. The modern meaning, regaining something that was once yours and has been lost, follows naturally from that demand. The same root gives us "claim" itself, which entered English from the same Anglo-French and Latin line.

Synonyms: retrieve, recover, regain, recapture, rescue

Antonyms: abandon, lose, surrender