Recolonise

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. to restore a former settlement or community to an area that was once inhabited, reestablishing its culture or practices there
2. to revitalize and populate an abandoned region, bringing back its prior inhabitants or traditions
3. to reinstate a former population in a previously occupied area, rejuvenating the local customs or societal structures associated with it

Etymology: "Recolonise" is a plain formation: the prefix "re-", meaning again, attached to "colonise", so it means to colonise a second time. The stem traces back through Latin "colere", to cultivate or inhabit, whose noun "colonus" meant a settler or farmer who worked land. That sense of tilling and dwelling is still visible in the modern verb, which describes resettling a place that people had left. The root of "colonise" is older than the Romans' farms. It descends from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning to turn or dwell, and Latin "colonus" passed through Middle English "colone" before the verb "colonize" took shape in English. The suffix "-ize", borrowed through Late Latin and Greek from a verb ending meaning to make or treat in a certain way, turns the noun-like stem into an action: to make a place into a settlement.

Synonyms: resettle, repopulate, reestablish, restore, rehabilitate