Author Topic: repurpose  (Read 2650 times)

rogue_mother

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repurpose
« on: September 05, 2015, 04:45:12 AM »
I'd like to propose an addition to the Chihuahua lexicon, repurpose, which can be derived from the recent 10-letter puzzle SUPERPOWER. This is a verb which means to find an alternate use for an item. The past tense is in itself a 10-letter word, but I doubt it could be used as a seed word, not common enough.
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blackrockrose

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Re: repurpose
« Reply #1 on: September 05, 2015, 09:14:55 AM »
Seconded. I tried this one too, and was surprised to find it not accepted.

nineoaks

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Re: repurpose
« Reply #2 on: September 06, 2015, 12:41:57 PM »
I'd call 'repurpose(d) pretty common in my word-world.

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anona

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Re: repurpose
« Reply #3 on: September 07, 2015, 09:16:15 PM »
I've never heard/seen the word. But then I'm British and retired - perhaps it's used more in a working environment? (But my husband is still working and says he's not heard it either ...)

blackrockrose

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Re: repurpose
« Reply #4 on: September 07, 2015, 09:39:49 PM »

Alan W

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Re: repurpose
« Reply #5 on: September 29, 2016, 12:29:29 PM »
Yes, repurpose definitely should be accepted as a word. It's in several contemporary dictionaries, and examples of its usage are easy to find.

It's come onto the scene fairly recently. The Corpus of Contemporary American English has no instances before 2000, and shows a big surge in usage since 2010. The Google Ngram Viewer, which only covers texts up to 2000, shows the word coming into use in the 1990s.

Anona, the word does seem to be used less frequently in Britain than in the US, and that is true also of the hyphenated form re-purpose.

I'll add repurpose and repurposed as rare words. As you say, RM, the latter won't actually appear in any puzzles, but who knows, perhaps we'll one day have 11- or 12-letter puzzles.
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