Other forms: reconnected, reconnecting, reconnects
To reconnect is to join up again. Reconnect the cable, reconnect with old friends, reconnected after years.
The technical sense is literal and the human one is a metaphor that has almost overtaken it — reconnecting with somebody means restoring a relationship that lapsed rather than ended. In networks, reconnecting automatically after a dropout is a basic requirement. Note that re- here means back as much as again.
1verbreconnectTo join up again.
“The engineer reconnected the power after fixing the cable.”
2verbrestoreTo restore a lapsed relationship.
“After years apart, the old friends reconnected at a school reunion.”
reconnect is a joining again.
Latin
connectō
English
connect
English, today
reconnect
From re- + connect. connect comes from Latin connectō. From Latin connecto (“fasten together”), from con- + nectere, which is cognate with English knot and English knit.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA