Unprocess

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To reverse or remove the effects of having been converted, treated, or refined; to return a material, data, or item to a natural or original state
2. Taking away artificial modifications, preparations, or systematic changes from something; restoring it to an initial, untreated, or raw condition
3. Undoing procedures or changes that were previously applied to substances, objects, or information; bringing them back to their unaltered or base form

Etymology: "Unprocess" is a transparent formation. The prefix "un-," which English has used since Old English to reverse an action, as in "undo" or "unlock," is attached to "process." There is no separate coinage or famous origin behind the verb, so its history is simply the history of its parts. "Process" comes from Latin "procedere," meaning "to go forward," built from "pro-" (forward) and "cedere" (to go). The Latin noun "processus" meant an advance or going forward, and in English the word came to mean an ordered series of steps leading to a result. "Unprocess" reverses that sense: rather than moving material through steps toward a finished state, it sends the material back along them.

Synonyms: reverse, undo, deprocess

Antonyms: process, handle, treat