reinvent

Etymology

It is formed from English re- + invent.^[2][3][4][5] The OED compares the post-classical Latin verb Late Latin reinveniō, recorded from the 6th century, and the earlier redinveniō, used by Tertullian in the early 3rd century.^[2] Invent goes back to Latin inveniō (“to come upon; to devise, discover”).^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To invent again: 1647, in William Petty's Advice to Hartlib.^[2] The OED revised the entry in 2009 and found this earlier record;^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the 1680s,^[3] Merriam-Webster to 1686,^[7][8] and Dictionary.com to 1685–90.^[5]

Semantic evolution

For most of its history the verb simply meant to invent something a second time, especially without knowing of the earlier invention.^[2][3] It was also written re-invent.^[3] In the 20th century it took on the sense of giving a person or thing a new image or identity, recorded from 1913 and now most often reflexive, as when someone reinvents himself as a novelist.^[2][4] The phrase reinvent the wheel, to repeat work that others have already done, is American in origin.^[9] The OED and Tréguer find it first in 1956, in a paper by Margaret Egan and Herman Henkle on how researchers use information, where a literature search is meant to avoid "re-inventing the wheel";^[2][9] Etymonline dates it to 1971.^[3] An Iowa newspaper column of 1960 already used it figuratively of each generation having to learn again what earlier ones knew.^[9] Barry Popik describes the phrase as doing work unnecessarily when it has already been done.^[10] American dictionaries also record the sense of bringing something back into use.^[11][7]

Timeline

• 1647 – to invent again.^[2]
• 1913 – to give a new image or identity to; to reinvent oneself.^[2]
• 1956 – to reinvent the wheel, to repeat work needlessly.^[2][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To change something so thoroughly that it becomes in effect a new thing; to replace a product with an entirely new version: The company reinvented its old phone as a tablet.^[12][11][7]
2. (reflexive) To take on a new image or identity: After leaving politics she reinvented herself as a painter.^[2][4]
3. To invent again something that already exists.^[2][7][4]
4. To bring back into existence or use.^[11][7]
5. reinvent the wheel: to waste effort making or doing again what has already been made or done.^[12][2][4]

Word family

• reinvention

Related words

• invent
• invention
• re-

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d Tréguer, Pascal, Word Histories, wordhistories.net, p. "‘to reinvent the wheel’: meaning and origin", 16 August 2021
10. ^ Popik, Barry, The Big Apple, barrypopik.com, p. "“Reinvent the wheel”", 17 November 2019
11. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins