reerect

Reerect is a verb meaning to restore something to an upright or erect position after it has been laid, fallen, or dismantled, or to reconstruct it in an upright form. The term is used in fields such as civil engineering, construction, archaeology, and museum conservation, where objects or structures are temporarily removed or damaged and then set up again in their original orientation.

While often written as re-erect with a hyphen, the single-word form reerect is also used, though it is less common in some dictionaries. The form chosen can vary by publisher or discipline. The verb is typically transitive: engineers reerected columns; conservators reerect a ruined façade. The noun forms reerection or re-erection denote the act of reerecting.

Etymology is straightforward: the word combines the prefix re- meaning again with erect, which derives from Latin erigere “to raise up.” The sense is to raise again into an upright position after prior removal, damage, or collapse.

See also terms related to upright positioning and restoration, including erect, erection, restoration, reconstruction, and reassembly. In practice, reerection is often part of broader stabilization, conservation, or reconstruction efforts for buildings, monuments, statues, and other structures or objects. The emphasis is typically on maintaining original orientation, alignment, and historical integrity while reestablishing usability or display.