reclaim

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To get back something that was taken away or lost.

   She fought in court to reclaim her property.

2. 2
   verb

   To make wasteland or used material usable again.

   The land was reclaimed from the sea for farming.

3. 3
   verb

   To bring a word, especially an insult, back into acceptable use by the group it once targeted.

   The community has reclaimed a word that was once used as an insult.

Simplified etymology

Reclaim dates from Middle English and ultimately derives from Latin clamare ‘to call out’. It was first used in falconry to mean ‘recall’; the sense ‘make land suitable for cultivation’ is recorded from late Middle English.

From Middle English reclaymen, recleymen, reclamen, from Anglo-Norman reclamer (noun reclaim and Middle French reclamer (noun reclaim), from Latin reclāmō, reclāmāre. Equivalent to re- + claim.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary