Meaning
To waste time and effort creating something that already exists or solving a problem that has already been solved. Standard advice against it, 'don't reinvent the wheel', recommends reusing proven work rather than duplicating it. Informal to neutral; mildly critical of duplicated effort, though sometimes worn as a badge of learning. Regional use: American English origin; now General English.
Origin
Of American-English origin. Word Histories, listing the earliest occurrences it could find in chronological order, traces the phrase to a 1956 information-science text by Margaret Egan and Herman H. Henkle, Documentation in Action, where an intensive literature search is said 'to forestall unnecessary duplication or, as one scientist has expressed it, to avoid re-inventing the wheel'. The metaphor, painstakingly rebuilding an ancient and long-perfected device, then spread quickly through mid-century American journalism and management writing, usually in the hyphenated form 're-invent' before settling into its modern spelling.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- don't reinvent the wheel
- reinvent the wheel again
- reinventing the wheel
Usage Examples
- Before writing the parser from scratch, check the standard library; there is no need to reinvent the wheel.
- The audit found three teams had quietly reinvented the wheel, each building its own invoicing tool.
- She reinvented the wheel with her filing system, unaware the office already had a shared template.