Recompressing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The action of compressing something again by applying pressure a second time to restore its compactness or reduce its size after initial expansion or decompression
2. The process of subjecting a material or data to compression once more following its prior decompression or expansion to achieve a smaller volume or data size
3. Reapplying force or technique to condense an object, substance, or digital information after it has been previously decompressed or loosened in order to return it to a compressed state

Etymology: Recompressing is simply the present participle of "recompress", so its history is that of the verb itself: a prefix attached to an existing word. The "re-" comes from Latin "re-", meaning "back" or "again," and "compress" comes from Latin "compressare," a frequentative of "comprimere," meaning "to press together." English took "compress" from Old French, and the prefixed form "recompress" was built from those two parts. In practice, the word describes returning something to the squeezed state it was in before it was loosened, whether that is air in a tank, a sample of soil, or a digital file.

Synonyms: recompress