Reconstituted, even dissected! Eventually found in new, evolving dictionaries.

equivalent

equivalent

In marketing terms, anything which is "equivalent" to something else is always available for less cash, but it also comes with less cachet.

If cachet is what the original is all about, then the hell with the cash. And vice versa. :)

I learned this lesson vividly with my preteenage daughter some years back. We were at the Mall and she saw a pair of Birkenstock sandals which made her own Birkenstocks, although perfectly serviceable, seem unstylish.

I offered to buy her a pair of Birkenstock look-alikes of all-leather construction for half the price and she went off in something of a huff, preferring her slightly worn, genuine Birkenstocks to the stylish "equivalent" brand new.

In style, at least, "equivalency" is a matter of personal taste.

Well, Plutarch, I don't know if the game I started here just zoomed under your feet or over your head, but now that we have a bit of your personal background on the word I hope you'll incorporate all your above, beholden ideas about 'equivalency' into the form of an acrostic so we can get on with the concise version of wordplay/fun that this game intends...

... and then give the next in line a word to work with, etc...

I thought this game was called "demented dictionary", but that is something else entirely... maybe I'll start one of those, too...