Repair

Part of speech: verb, noun

Pronunciation: /ɹɪˈpɛə/

Definitions

1. To fix something that is broken or damaged so that it works properly again
2. To make an item usable again by correcting faults or damages, thus ensuring it operates as designed and meets its intended purpose
3. To restore functionality to an item that has sustained damage or malfunction, thereby enabling it to perform its intended tasks again

Etymology: The most surprising thing about "repair" is that it once meant "to go home." In Late Latin, "repatriare" combined "re-" (back) with "patria" (homeland) to mean returning to one's own country. Old French shortened this to "repairier," and Middle English took it as "repairen," meaning simply to return somewhere, with no sense of mending anything yet. The shift from travel to fixing happened on a separate track. Middle French "reparer," from Latin "reparare" (to renew, restore), reached English in the 1300s and gradually overlapped with the older verb until the sense of restoring something broken took over. Both lines of descent meet in the modern verb, which is why one etymology accounts for a homeward journey and the other for a workbench.

Synonyms: fix, mend, restore, patch, revise

Antonyms: break, damage, destroy, ruin, worsen