Etymologically
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recess

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ɹɪˈsɛs/, /ˈɹiːsɛs/[1]
  • US: /ˈɹiˌsɛs/, /ɹəˈsɛs/[1]

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

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