rewild

English

Etymology

From re- +‎ wild.

Verb

rewild (third-person singular simple present rewilds, present participle rewilding, simple past and past participle rewilded)

1. (ecology) To return an area to a more wild state, especially to repopulate it with wild animals that have become extirpated.
   • 2005, Paul Schultz Martin, Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America, University of California Press, →ISBN, page XIII:

     Told in the form of a personal journey, Paul Martin's book covers his own boyhood bird-watching, graduate work in evolutionary biology, and a distinguished academic career; it culminates in a daring plan to truly rewild North America.

   • 2016 January 26, John Carey, “Core Concept: Rewilding”, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America‎^[1], →DOI, pages 806–808:

     Some scientists and others now argue that we should be bringing some of those ghosts back, part of a controversial movement to “rewild” parts of Europe and North America, whether by reintroducing extant species, reviving extinct ones, or attempting to reconstruct ecosystems.

   • 2023 August 26, Phoebe Weston, “Weed-choked pavements anger residents as ‘rewilding’ divides UK towns and cities”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     She is not alone in her concerns. The push from local authorities to rewild spaces is causing consternation in villages, towns and cities across the country.

Derived terms

• rewilder
• rewilding

Descendants

• Dutch: → rewilden, → herwilderen (calque)

Translations

to return an area to a wilder state

• Catalan: resilvestrar
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 再野化 (zàiyěhuà)

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: herwilderen
• Finnish: villiinnyttää
• French: réensauvager (fr)
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: resilvestrar, asilvestrar (es)

Further reading

• rewilding (conservation biology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Wilder, wilder