restitute meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

restitute

verb

/ˈɹɛstɪtjuːt/ · /ˈɹɛstɪtuːt/

Etymology From Old French restituer, from Latin restituō (“replace, restore”).

To restore (something) to its former condition.

Near-synonym: reinstitute (sometimes synonymous)
Abebaw stated that activities are being done to track down where and with whom the artifacts are collected to return the items that are collected by various institutions and individuals. In this regard, a document listing down these important items was submitted to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as evidence. Recall that many artifacts have been returned through efforts made in the past five years, he said, pointing out those in the hands of various individuals returned voluntarily and through negotiations. Efforts to restitute Ethiopian artifacts listed for auction in various countries will involve legally halting them from sale, he added.2025 August 24, “Ethiopian Heritage Authority Intensifies Push to Restitute Looted Artifacts”, in ENA Reliable News Source, Ethiopian News Agency, retrieved 29 Aug 2025:

To provide recompense for (something).

Near-synonyms: repay, compensate, recompensate, recompense
[…] when Frederick M. (Bantam) Lyons had rapidly and successively requested, perused and restituted the copy of the current issue of the Freeman's Journal and National Press which he had been about to throw away (subsequently thrown away), he had proceeded towards the oriental edifice of the Turkish and Warm Baths.[…]1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 17]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

3 more examples

What I spill in talk or acts rarely is restituted in writing.1966, Anaïs Nin, Incest, published 1993, →ISBN, page 28:
[W]hat it represents is the inability of language to restitute the loss of memory.1980, Harold Bloom, Wallace Stevens: The Poems of Our Climate, →ISBN, page 266:
Government authorities would also have to write legislation that would recognize the specificity of their suffering and restitute them for their losses.2003, Maud Mandel, In the Aftermath of Genocide: Armenians and Jews in Twentieth-Century France, Duke University Press, →ISBN, page 54:

To refund.

(Mr Mukando): Mr Speaker, Sir, as a result of Government policy to control prices of certain agricultural products, the co-operative unions are annually allocated subsidy funds by Parliament to restitute them for the handling costs they incur while marketing and distributing those controlled commodities such as maize, sunflower, fertilisers and seeds.1983, National Assembly of Zambia, editor, Daily Parliamentary Debates, National Assembly of Zambia, page 2493:
We were even ordered to restitute the legal costs of the defendants.2004, Brian Haig, Private Sector, →ISBN, page 31:

noun

Etymology From Old French restituer, from Latin restituō (“replace, restore”).

That which is restored or offered in place of something; a substitute.