Revegetated

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The action of bringing back plant cover to a damaged area includes the re-establishment of native species to aid ecological recovery
2. The process of restoring vegetation to land that has been damaged or stripped of plants
3. Returning greenery and plant life to an environment that was previously barren or degraded

Etymology: "Revegetated" is the past tense and past participle of "revegetate," which means to cover again with plants or greenery after the ground has been stripped bare. The verb is formed by attaching the prefix "re-," meaning again, to "vegetate." That base verb is the more interesting half. "Vegetate" comes from the Latin "vegetare," meaning to enliven or animate, which in turn grew from "vegetus," lively or vigorous. The sense of plant growth came later: English writers of the seventeenth century used "vegetate" for the way plants grow and spread, and the idea of a living thing simply sprouting and thriving is still visible in the word's core. Over time "vegetate" also picked up a more negative sense, describing a person who does little but exist with no active life, so "revegetate" carries the botanical meaning without that figurative drag. The prefix does the work of restoring what was lost.