retarget

The verb retarget first appeared in 20th-century English with the basic meaning "to direct toward a different target." In digital advertising, retargeting has to do with directing people who have left your website back to the site by displaying ads that remind them of your site on other sites they subsequently visit. The base word target is from the early French noun targe, which was used for a light shield carried especially by footmen and archers. French targette, a diminutive form of targe, was taken into English as target in the early 15th century with its French sense. In the 18th century, the word acquired the extended sense of "a shieldlike object to shoot at for practice." In the following century, the figurative senses referring to a thing or person that is marked for attack (especially of ridicule or criticism) begin to develop. The sense of "a goal to be achieved" originated in the 20th century, often in connection with a quantity or date (as in "production targets" or "target dates").