Respecify

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To state or describe something again, often with changes or clarification
2. To provide a new or revised specification for something after an initial description
3. To redefine or detail something once more, usually to improve or update its description

Etymology: "Respecify" is a plain compound: the prefix "re-", meaning "again," attached to "specify." Nothing about its formation is surprising, so the interesting part is the history of the parts it is built from. "Specify" traces back to Latin "specificare," formed from "species" (kind, sort, appearance) and "facere" (to make). To specify something is, literally, to make it a particular kind or to mark it out as one. The Latin "re-" prefix, which English took in through Old French, carries the same sense of repetition it has here. Its ancestry runs back through Latin to a much older root that also shows up in words for "back" and "again" across related languages. Put together, "respecify" means to make a particular kind of thing again, or to set out its details once more with changes. The combination is a straightforward modern formation, used when a first specification needs revising.

Synonyms: redefine, restate, modify