reconstructv.
/ˌriːkənˈstrʌkt/, U.S. /ˌrikənˈstrək(t)/ 1. transitive. To construct or put together again, esp. following damage or destruction, or by way of renovation.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > creation > [verb (transitive)] > anew
regendera1400
re-engender1545
return1559
instaurate1583
new-make1585
recreate1587
remake1603
regenerate1607
new-create1608
reproduce1611
reconstruct1762
1762 T. Walter New Math. Dict. at Variation Any expectation before restrained, of reconstructing a set of lines by analogy, now vanished.
1768 A. Tucker Light of Nature Pursued II. iii. xxxi. 492 It seemed no blamable attempt to reconstruct the whole afresh from the very ground.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. i. 117 He saw that it was necessary to reconstruct the army of the Parliament.
1861 S. Smiles Lives Engineers II. 31 Having made up his mind that the lighthouse could only be reconstructed of wood.
1883 J. A. Froude Short Stud. 4th Ser. ii. i. 173 Each [party] in its way supposed that it had a mission to reconstruct society.
1902 ‘M. Twain’ in N. Amer. Rev. Dec. 759 Consider his ‘little book’..which reconstructs and new-paints the Bible.
1951 N. Pevsner Middlesex (Buildings of Eng.) 110 Bellamy rebuilt the rest of the church in 1866. The charming W porch and lych gate (with a trestle construction) were reconstructed from old materials.
1993 N.Y. Times 8 June c4 (caption) A taxidermist reconstructed a Pseudoryx nghetinhensis.
2.
a. transitive. To form a mental or visual impression of (a past event, phenomenon, etc.) based on assembled evidence.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > imagine or visualize [verb (transitive)] > again
reconjure1611
reproduce1756
reimagine1825
recreate1837
reconstruct1838
recapture1845
revisualize1896
1838 J. S. Mill in London & Westm. Rev. 29 480 He [sc. Bentham] begins all his inquiries by supposing nothing to be known on the subject, and reconstructs all philosophy ab initio.
1858 C. Merivale Hist. Romans under Empire VI. lv. 310 It may not be impossible..to reconstruct the true character of Tiberius.
1917 Science Progr. 11 682 Not only is the past retrieved in fragments; in some museums and exhibitions, and to a certain extent in historical plays, it is actually reconstructed.
1976 E. Maclaren Nature of Belief ii. 11 We can reconstruct how the process must have gone on.
1990 J. Sutherland Mrs Humphry Ward iv. 39 A third novel from this summer 1869 period, ‘Ailie’, survives only in part. One can reconstruct its main story as being set in Italy.
b. transitive. In police investigations: to recreate the circumstances of (an accident or crime), as an aid to discovering the cause, perpetrator, etc. Cf. reconstruction n. 1f.
ΚΠ
1888 Overland Monthly Dec. 635/1 Putting this and that together it did not take long for these officers to come to a conclusion and reconstruct the murder as it, in all probability, had occurred.
1933 Jrnl. Criminal Law & Criminol. 24 228 This is called reconstructing the crime.
1941 ‘N. Blake’ Case of Abominable Snowman iv. 37 You will want to reconstruct the scene of the crime, I'm sure.
2001 Morning Star (Wilmington, N. Carolina) (Nexis) 25 May 4 b The N.C. Highway Patrol is reconstructing a fatal five-vehicle accident that occurred last week..to determine if charges will be filed.
c. transitive. Linguistics. To deduce the structure or nature of (a protolanguage, or an individual form within such a language), esp. from the data of recorded cognate languages.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > other schools of linguistics > [verb (transitive)] > reconstruct protolanguage
reconstruct1930
1930 Language 6 164 It is a well-known fact that it is impossible to reconstruct a complete paradigm of Indo-European personal pronouns.
1965 Language 41 19 The younger protolanguages which we can reconstruct within the Indo-European family..cannot be placed in an identical frame of reference with Proto-Indo-European.
1990 Word 41 258 It was the unusual position of the first person singular Type I agreement marker across Muskogean..that led Haas..to reconstruct it as the only suffix in the Proto-Muskogean agreement paradigms.
3. U.S. Now historical.
a. transitive. To restore (a Confederate state or institution) to the Federal system of government according to the process of Reconstruction (reconstruction n. 1c).
ΚΠ
1863 N.Y. Times 25 Jan. 6/1 The mere abolition of Slavery does not improve the condition of the South. But the rebellion gives us the opportunity to reconstruct the South and to remedy the evil.
1865 S. Schurz in A. B. Hart Amer. Hist. told by Contemp. (1901) IV. 454 As to what is commonly termed ‘reconstruction’, it is..the whole organism of southern society that must be reconstructed.
1908 B. F. Perry in U. R. Brooks S. Carolina Bench & Bar 127 Congress required South Carolina to be reconstructed over again, and a new constitution was adopted by the carpetbaggers, negroes and scalawags.
1998 Polit. Sci. Q. 113 506 If voters in the states which had not left the Union elected a Democratic Congress before Southern states were reconstructed along Republican lines, it would be a simple matter to repeal the Reconstruction act.
b. transitive. To win over or reconcile (a supporter of the Confederacy) to the Federal system of government. Usually in passive. Now rare. In extended use in quot. 1904, in the context of the Philippine-American War (1899–1903).
ΚΠ
1863 New Hampsh. Statesman 20 Feb. 1/4 (heading) The rebels ‘won't be reconstructed’.
1867 Land we Love Jan. 227/2 She has not told us how Mr. G. was ‘reconstructed’. Were the rebel buttons cut off his coat? Did he take the ‘amnesty oath’?
1872 U.S. Presidential Election: Proc. National Union Republican Convent. 29 I am an ex-Confederate soldier who needed reconstruction, and if I am any judge in the matter I believe that I have been reconstructed.
1904 N.Y. Times 13 June 2 Military officers recently returned from the Philippines say Aguinaldo gives evidence of having been thoroughly ‘reconstructed’, and that he is in full accord with the new order of things.
Derivatives
reconˈstructable adj.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > other schools of linguistics > [adjective] > protolinguistics > reconstructed or reconstructable
reconstructable1891
reconstructed1933
1891 E. B. Bax Outlooks from New Standpoint iii. 201 As Hegel insisted, the universe of thought and things is reconstructable.
1926 Amer. Jrnl. Nursing 26 454 A large percentage of reconstructable subnormals will remain unnecessarily expensive social liabilities.
1992 P. Woolley tr. M. Eigen Steps towards Life (1996) i. ii. 8 The evolution of species..reveals itself in reconstructable phylogenetic trees.
reconˈstructible adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > amending > restoration > [adjective] > relating to reconstruction > reconstructed > able to be
reconstructible1925
1925 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 64 56 The shaft of the right humerus is complete for length on one side, its left fellow..readily reconstructible, for length, from the opposite side.
1965 Language 41 19 [Proto-Indo-European] is reconstructible only on the basis of internal evidence.
2004 Jrnl. Amer. Oriental Soc. 124 818 Passages that were entirely missing or not reconstructible from the manuscripts available to Waldschmidt.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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