Reinserting

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The act of placing something back into its original or proper position after removal or displacement
2. Returning an item or element to its former location or condition following extraction or transfer
3. Reestablishing something in its initial place or setting to restore original order or function

Etymology: "Reinserting" is the present participle of "reinsert," which combines the prefix re- ("again, back") with "insert." The prefix traces back through Latin "re-" to a Proto-Italic root, and it entered English as a productive element that could attach to almost any verb meaning to put something back in place. "Insert" is the more interesting half. It comes from Latin "inserere," meaning to put, plant, or graft into something, built from "in-" ("into") and "serere," to join or put in a row. The Latin sense was physical and agricultural, close to grafting a shoot into a stock. Over time it broadened to any act of placing one thing inside another, and English later extended it to printed matter, where an inserted leaflet or advertisement is slipped in among the pages. Put together, "reinsert" describes putting something back into the spot it belongs, and its literal sense of planting again still shows through the idea of restoring a thing to its proper place.

Synonyms: replacing, restoring, reintroducing, reembedding, reimplanting

Antonyms: removing, extracting, taking out, displacing, deleting