Reviving

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Restoring someone or something to life, consciousness, or health ; renewing interest, activity, or strength in a person, thing, or situation
2. Causing a person or organism to regain awareness or life after unconsciousness or dormancy ; reenergizing or revitalizing enthusiasm or operation in an area or subject
3. Bringing back to a living state or alertness after being unconscious or inactive ; stimulating a recovery or renewed attention to something previously declining or forgotten

Etymology: "Reviving" is the present participle of "revive," so the story belongs to the verb. Its core is strikingly literal: "re-" meaning "again" joined to "vivere," the Latin for "to live." A revival is, quite literally, a living again. The verb passed into English through Anglo-Norman and Old French forms of the Latin "revivere," and it first appeared in Middle English with a wide range of senses: to recover from illness, to regain consciousness, to return to life after death, or to happen again. Some of those early senses are now rare, but they show how close the word stayed to its physical origin. In alchemy, a metal could be said to "revive" when it was restored to its original form after being reduced or altered. The verb thus carried a sense of material restoration as well as human recovery. The figurative uses, bringing back an interest or a custom that had faded, developed from these more concrete meanings. The participle "reviving" follows the same path, so every present-day use of it still echoes the Latin sense of living again.

Synonyms: restoring, rejuvenating, revitalizing

Antonyms: killing, destroying, quenching