reappropriation means the act or process of reappropriating. It carries an Arena rating of 1348, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, reappropriation ranks #3,936 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #5,657 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #9,798 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #11,128 of 17,131 for Scariest Words.
Why “reappropriation” is a great word
Reappropriation is the cultural process by which a group reclaims and redefines a term or artifact that was previously used against it. Formed within English by derivation from the prefix re- (meaning 'again' or 'back') and the noun appropriation (from Latin appropriatus, past participle of appropriare, 'to make one's own'). Unlike simple appropriation, which denotes the initial act of taking something for one's own use, or reclamation, which often concerns land or resources, reappropriation is a targeted, semantic counter-attack. It is the defiant wearing of a slur as a badge, the transformation of a caricature into a crest, the alchemical turning of poison into medicine—a quiet war fought in the lexicon to forge pride from shame.
Etymology
From re- + appropriation.
noun
- The act or process of reappropriating.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
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