Retagging

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. The act of assigning or applying new labels or tags to items, content, or data
2. Changing or adding updated tags or markers to categorize or identify something differently
3. Reapplying or updating descriptive tags or labels on objects, documents, or information for classification

Etymology: "Retagging" is simply the present participle and gerund of "retag", a verb formed by attaching the prefix "re-", meaning "again" or "anew", to "tag". So the word means, quite literally, tagging something a second time, or tagging it differently once the first tags no longer fit. The base word "tag" is the older and more interesting part of the story, since it has been around in English far longer than the computing sense that now dominates. "Re-" is a productive prefix in English, attached freely to verbs such as "reset", "reboot" and "rename", and "retag" follows the same pattern. Its use grew alongside digital cataloguing, where files, photos and posts are routinely given new labels as their content or classification changes.

Synonyms: relabeling, renaming