retrovate

to return to an earlier state, the opposite of renovate or gentrify.
the hippies spashed brown paint on the walls of their building, removed a door, and broke two windows in an effort to retrovate.
to come up with an idea that you aren’t aware is already around. from “retro” meaning backwards/before and “innovate”.

to retrovate something, one must think it’s an entirely new idea. that is, he must not have any prior knowledge of the idea being around. (retrovation is a form of plagiarism if the idea is published.)
man: “i had an awesome idea. you could go make me a sandwich, woman!”
woman: “you might’ve just retrovated that, honey.”
man: “no back-talk woman, make me a sandwich!”

guy: “i coined the phrase nbd two years ago, now everyone i know is using it!”
girl: “wow, that’s pretty bad-ss. . . except it was the definithing.com word of the day july 2, 2007. i think you might’ve retrovated it.”
guy: “g-d dammit… sleep with me anyway?”
girl: “wasn’t going to happen to begin with.”

lamer21: “dude, there was an xkcd on retrovation, check it out, it’s comic 827.”
blackhatdude: “retrovation means you had the idea after, it doesn’t mean you had it before and never publicized it. by the way, i thought i should inform you, i hit your cat the other day, he didn’t run away.”