Restitutes

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Returns something to the condition or owner it originally belonged to
2. Gives back or repairs an item or situation to how it was before
3. Restores possession or state of something to its prior form or rightful holder

Etymology: "Restitutes" is the third-person singular form of "restitute," so it shares its entire history with the base verb. That verb comes from the Latin "restitutus," the past participle of "restituere," meaning "to set up again" or "to restore," built from "re-" (back, again) and "statuere" (to set up, to establish), the same root that gives English "statute" and "constitute." The Latin verb was used for restoring property, health, and buildings, and English took the legal sense of returning something to its rightful owner from it. English adopted the word in the 1500s, and it has stayed largely a formal or legal term, most often seen in phrases like "restitute the property" or in the noun "restitution." The root "statuere" explains the connection: a statute is something set firmly in place, and to restitute is to set something firmly back where it belonged.

Synonyms: restores, recompenses, reimburses

Antonyms: takes, seizes