recess

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin recessus (“a going back, retreat; a retired place”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} and according to Barnhart it is in part borrowed from Middle French reces.^[4] The Latin noun is formed from recēdō (“to go back, withdraw”) with the suffix -tus,^[2][7] and the verb from re- (“back”) and cēdō (“to go”),^[3][8] from Proto-Indo-European *ked- (“to go, yield”).^[3] In medieval Latin the noun also meant a resolution of the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire, so called because it was passed by a meeting about to break up.^[2] The verb is formed from the noun.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

An agreement or treaty: 1516, a sense obsolete by 1538.^[2] Barnhart, Etymonline and Merriam-Webster date the word from 1531, in the sense "the act of going back or away".^[4][3][6]

Semantic evolution

Most of the 16th-century senses were abstract: withdrawal or departure (1531), retirement or seclusion (about 1532), and the receding of the sea or other water (1577), which survives only in rare use.^[2][9] A hidden or remote place, and later the innermost parts of anything, are recorded from 1616, and a pause in work from 1620;^[4][3] Barnhart thinks both may come from French,^[4] where recès meant a break or pause from the 14th century, and a school holiday by 1611.^[2] Etymonline links the pause sense with the notion of parliament withdrawing,^[3] and Weekley dates the parliamentary sense to the 17th century.^[10] The architectural sense, a niche or alcove, followed in the 1690s,^[3] and the Shorter Oxford dates the use of a break during the school day, and of the adjournment of a court, as chiefly North American.^[9][11] The verb, "to make a recess in", is recorded from 1743,^[2][6] and "to set back, place in a recess" by 1774, or 1809 in Barnhart and Etymonline.^[2][4][3] In the United States it also came to mean to adjourn a meeting (1844, in Dickens) and to take a recess (1893).^[2][4][3]

Timeline

• 1516 – an agreement, a treaty (obsolete).^[2]
• 1531 – the act of withdrawing or going back.^[2][4][3]
• 1577 – the receding of water.^[2]
• 1616 – a hidden or remote place.^[4][3]
• 1620 – a period of rest from work; a decree of the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire.^[4][2]
• 1690s – a niche or receding part of a wall or line.^[3]
• 1743 – verb, to make a recess in.^[2][6]
• 1774 – verb, to set in a recess.^[2]
• 1844 – verb, to adjourn.^[2]
• 1893 – verb, to take a recess (American English).^[2][4][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A space set back in a wall; a niche or alcove.^[11][9]
2. A remote or secret place; often in the plural, the innermost parts of something: the recesses of her memory.^[11][6][9]
3. A break in the work of a legislature or court: Parliament's summer recess.^[11][9]
4. (US, Canada) A break between lessons during the school day.^[11][9]
5. (anatomy) A small hollow or cavity in an organ or structure.^[11]
6. (historical) A resolution or decree of the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire or of the Hanseatic League.^[2][9]
7. (archaic) The action of receding, as of the tide.^[6][9][2]

Verb

1. To place or set something in a recess: recessed lighting.^[11][6][2]
2. To make a recess in a wall or other structure.^[11][6][2]
3. (chiefly US) To adjourn a meeting or session for a time; to take a recess.^[6][2]

Word family

• nonrecess

Related words

• recession
• recessive
• recede
• recessional
• cede

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins