Recontainerize

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To transfer goods from one container to another, usually for storage or transport purposes
2. The act of moving cargo into a different container to facilitate handling, shipping, or organization
3. Changing the packaging container of items by placing them into new or alternate containers for distribution or storage

Etymology: "Recontainerize" is a transparent formation: the prefix "re-" ("again, back") attached to "containerize," which means to pack goods into standardized shipping containers. "Containerize" itself dates from the 1950s and 1960s, when the American trucking entrepreneur Malcom McLean pioneered the steel intermodal shipping container, and the verb grew out of that new logistics system, so the word is younger than many people assume. The base "container" comes from Anglo-Norman and Old French "contenir," "to hold together," which traces back to Latin "continere." Its use as a verb in English is more recent than the noun, arriving only once shipping and manufacturing made containers a central concept. "Recontainerize" therefore means to move cargo or material from one container to another, a sense that shows up mainly in logistics, waste handling, and data systems. The meaning is literal, so the word has no real shift in sense to report.

Synonyms: repackage, rebox, recontain