recent

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈriː.sənt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English recent (“new, fresh”), borrowed from Latin recēns (“lately done or made; new, fresh, young”), accusative recentem,^[2][3][4] also through récent.^[5][6][7] Latin recēns is of uncertain origin,^[3] perhaps from re- and Proto-Indo-European *ken- (“fresh, new, young”),^[2][4] the source also of Greek καινός (kainós, “new”) and Sanskrit kanīna “young”.^[2][6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of foods, “fresh, newly made”: the early 15th century,^[2] probably before 1425.^[3] The OED's first quotation, “lately done or made”, is from 1533.^[8]

Semantic evolution

“Belonging to a time comparatively near the present” is from 1622^[8] or the 1620s,^[2] and “fresh, not yet decayed” from 1632.^[8] “Not long past”, of a point of time, is from 1823.^[8] In geology Recent, with a capital, is the present epoch, from 1830^[8] or 1833.^[8] Recentness is from the 1670s, while recency (1610s) was common in the 19th century, according to the OED.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1425 – fresh, newly made.^[3]
• 1533 – lately done.^[8]
• 1622 – near the present.^[8]
• 1632 – fresh.^[8]
• 1823 – not long past.^[8]
• 1830 – the Recent geological epoch.^[8]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Having happened or begun a short time ago.
2. Belonging to a time not long past; modern.
3. (geology) Of the Holocene epoch.

Word family

• recency
• recently
• recentness

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press