Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Latin, literally "anew, afresh."
Wiktionary
a. anew, afresh, from the beginning; without consideration of previous instances, proceedings or determinations. adv. anew (gloss: from the beginning)
WordNet
adv. from the beginning
Wikipedia
In general usage, de novo is a Latin expression meaning "from the beginning," "afresh," "anew," "beginning again."
It may also refer to:
Usage examples of "de novo".
Writing has evolved de novo only a few times in human history, in areas that had been the earliest sites of the rise of food production in their respective regions.
In the largest metropolitan hospitals, in Santiago or Bombay, the particular strain of Vibrio cholerae could be sequenced completely, and a de novo drug designed and synthesized in a matter of hours.
It is taken up de novo by some inventor, stimulated by the needs of his time, and falling again upon the track, he recovers the old footmarks, follows them up, and completes the work.
However malleable their minds, in a sense they obeyed the same kind of deep constraints as the diamond net-short of suicide and de novo reinvention, short of obliterating themselves and constructing someone new.