rehabilitation
Meaning
The process of helping someone to have a normal, useful life again after they have been very ill or in prison for a long time.
The process of returning something, such as a building or an area of land, to its previous good condition.
The process of helping someone to stop taking drugs or alcohol and return to a healthy, independent life.
Structure
Usage
The center provides physical therapy for the rehabilitation of injured athletes.
The government funded the rehabilitation of the historic city center.
After serving his sentence, he entered a drug rehabilitation program.
Etymology
The word 'rehabilitation' is built upon the Latin verb rehabilitare, meaning "to restore to a former capacity". It is a compound of the prefix re- (again), the root habilitas (aptitude, fitness), and the noun-forming suffix -ation. The core concept of habilitas stems from habilis, meaning "easily handled or apt", which itself derives from the verb habere (to have, hold). Thus, the literal morphemic logic is "the process (ation) of making fit (habilit) again (re)". Over centuries, this concrete sense of restoring fitness evolved into the modern abstract meanings of restoring a person's health, social standing, or a building's former condition.
Analysis
re: Latin origin, a prefix meaning "again" or "back". habilit: From Latin habilitas (aptitude, ability), related to habilis (easily handled, apt). Its functional role is the core root meaning "to make fit or able". ation: Latin suffix -ation, used to form nouns indicating an action or process.