The word for today is…
anneal (verb) -
transitive verb
1a: to heat and then cool (a material, such as steel or glass) usually for softening and making less brittle, also : to cool slowly usually in a furnace
b: to cause two complementary strands of nucleic acid (such as DNA or RNA) to join by hydrogen bonding,
also : to induce the binding of a genetic primer to a complementary single-stranded nucleic acid by slowly cooling single strands obtained from the heating and separation of double-stranded DNA or RNA
2: strengthen, toughen
intransitive verb
1: to pair with a complementary strand of nucleic acid, also : to bind to a complementary single-stranded nucleic acid during a process of heating and cooling
2: strengthen, toughen
Source : Merriam-Webster
Etymology : If you were looking for a saying to apply to the word anneal, it might be "everything old is new again." The word was originally associated with one of the oldest technologies of humankind: fire. It derives from the Old English word onǣlan, which was formed from the Old English root āl, meaning "fire." In its earliest known uses, anneal meant simply "to set on fire." That sense has become obsolete, however, and nowadays anneal is associated with metalworking and glasswork as well as a much more recent technological development. It has come to be used in the context of DNA research, in reference to the heating and cooling of double-stranded nucleic acid.
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