Reclaimers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals or groups that work to restore something to its original state or ownership
2. People who seek to recover lost rights, properties, or values through advocacy or action
3. Agents engaged in the process of reclaiming resources, land, or entitlement for sustainable use or community benefit

Etymology: "Reclaimers" is the plural of "reclaimer," and the word is about as transparent as English gets: it is "reclaim" with the agent suffix "-er" added, so it names whoever or whatever reclaims. The base verb "reclaim" comes from Old French "reclamer," meaning to call back or cry out against, and it passed into English through that route, where the sense of calling something back gradually became the sense of recovering it. Taking "reclaim" to mean wresting land from the sea, from waste, or from neglect is the meaning that the modern noun inherits.

Synonyms: restorers, recoverers, recuperators, retrievers, renewers