recognizable
Pronunciation
Etymology
It is formed from English recognize + -able.[2][3] The verb recognize goes back to recognisen, from Old French reconoistre (“to know again”), from Latin recognōscō (“to know again, recall to mind”), formed from re- (“again”) and cognōscō (“to get to know”).[4][3] The OED compares Old French reconoisable, recorded about 1100, the ancestor of the modern French adjective.[2]
Earliest recorded meaning
Able to be recognized or identified: the OED's first quotation is from H. Care's English Liberties, probably of 1682.[2]
Semantic evolution
The sense has stayed the same since the first record.[2][5] Etymonline dates the word to 1751, glossing it "able to be recognized, capable of being known and acknowledged".[3] The first edition of the OED had it only from 1799,[6] and the revised entry of 2009 moved the first record back to about 1682.[2] The adverb recognizably and the noun recognizability followed.[3] In British English it is also spelled recognisable.[5][1]
Timeline
- c. 1682 – able to be recognized or identified.[2]
- 1751 – the date given by Etymonline.[3]
- 1799 – the first record in the first edition of the OED.[6]
Meanings
Adjective
- Able to be recognized or identified: After ten years abroad she was hardly recognizable.[5][2][1]
Word family
- recognizably
- recognizability
Related words
- recognize
- recognition
- recognizance
- cognizance
References
- ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
- ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press