Rethatched

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. Fitted with a fresh roof of straw, reeds or similar material to replace an old thatched covering
2. Having had its thatched roof replaced or renewed with new layers of dried plant material
3. Newly roofed once more with thatch, after the previous straw or reed covering was removed

Etymology: "Rethatched" is the past tense and past participle of "rethatch," which means to put a new thatched roof on a building. It is an inflected form, so its history is that of its base verb: the verb is formed in English by adding the prefix "re-," meaning "again," to "thatch." The prefix itself has a longer ancestry. It descends from the Proto-Italic root "wre-," passing into Latin as "re-," where it carried the sense of "back" or "again." Old French took the prefix over as "re-," and Middle English borrowed it in the same form, so English speakers inherited a ready-made tool for repeating an action. "Thatch" is the older, native half of the word. Repairing a thatched roof was once an ordinary seasonal job, which explains why English needed a dedicated verb for doing it over. "Rethatch" is simply that job described in one word.