Reinfect

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To contract an illness a second time after previously recovering from it
2. To be affected by a disease again after having been free of it
3. To acquire an illness once more following an earlier recovery from the same disease

Etymology: "Reinfect" is a plain compound: the prefix "re-", meaning "again", attached to "infect". The "infect" part comes from Latin "inficere", literally "to put in" or "to dip into", built from "in-" and "facere" ("to make" or "to do"). Over time it came to mean contaminating something with a harmful agent, which is the sense that gives "reinfect" its meaning of being affected by a disease once more. The prefix "re-" traces back through Latin, where it was a common way of signalling repetition or return, and it has been used freely in English to form new verbs from existing ones. That is why "reinfect" can be coined from any verb of infection without any special history of its own. Its lineage runs through Old French and Middle English before reaching modern English, following the same route as many other "re-" words.

Synonyms: infect again

Antonyms: cure, heal