Steel reinforcing rods or bars placed inside concrete to make it stronger and more resistant to cracking.
Short for 'reinforcing bar,' contracted into the single word 'rebar' in early 20th century English. It combines 're-' (again) and 'bar' to describe bars that reinforce concrete. The term became standard in construction and engineering vocabulary.
Rebar is a contraction that engineers accidentally created—they were just saying 'reinforcing bar' quickly until it became one word, and now that shortened version is the official technical term!
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