reinstate

Etymology

It is formed from English re- + instate.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The verb instate, to put someone in a certain state or condition, is from about 1600 and is formed from English in- + state.^[5][4] The OED compares the slightly earlier verb re-estate.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To put a person or thing back into a former position or condition: 1616, in the revised edition of Ben Jonson's Cynthia's Revels.^[2][4] Etymonline dates the word to the 1590s,^[5] the Shorter Oxford to the late 16th century,^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1620–30.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, putting someone back in a position, rank or office, is the main one today.^[2][8] Hoad separates re-establishing someone in a position, from the 16th century, from restoring something to a former state, from the 18th.^[6] Johnson (1755) defined it as to put again in possession.^[9] From 1791 it was also used of restoring something damaged to a proper state, or replacing it.^[2][4] Shelley and a few others used it for restoring someone to health between 1810 and 1842, a rare sense now obsolete.^[2]

Timeline

• 1616 – to put back into a former position or condition.^[2][4]
• 1624 – used with in, to reinstate someone in a place or office.^[2]
• 1791 – to restore something to a proper state; to make good something damaged.^[2]
• 1810 – to restore to health (rare; obsolete after 1842).^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To put someone back into a former position, rank or office: The club reinstated the coach after the inquiry.^[8][4][10]
2. To bring something back into use, force or existence, such as a rule, a grant or an insurance policy.^[10][4][8]
3. To restore something to its proper condition, or to replace it: The damaged panels were reinstated.^[4][2]

Word family

• reinstatement
• reinstator
• unreinstated

Related words

• instate
• state
• estate

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt