Etymologically
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recognize

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈrek.əɡ.naɪz/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English recognisen, borrowed from Middle French reconoiss-, the stem of reconoistre “to know again, identify”,[2][3][4] from Latin recognōscere (“to know again, recall to mind; examine, certify”),[2][3] from re- “again” and cognōscere “to get to know”.[2][5] The ending was assimilated to verbs in -ize, under the influence of Medieval Latin recognizare.[2][3] Etymonline also allows a back-formation from recognizance.[2] It is related to recognition, cognition and reconnaissance.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To resume possession of land: 1414 in Barnhart,[3] the early 15th century in Etymonline.[2] It first entered English in such legal senses,[5] earliest as a term of Scots law (1456 in the OED).[6][7]

Semantic evolution

To acknowledge or admit is from 1531–1532,[6] and to acknowledge formally, treat as valid, as in recognize a government, from 1548–1549.[3][6] To know a person or thing again, to perceive as already known, is from the 1530s, at first in the form recognosce.[2][3] Trench noted that in earlier English it also meant to review or to reconnoitre (1637),[8][6] senses now obsolete.[6] The use “to identify by a distinctive feature” dates only from the early 18th century.[5] To allow a person to speak in a meeting is a later sense.[9][10]

Timeline

  • 1414 – to resume possession of land.[3]
  • 1456 – in Scots law.[6]
  • 1531–32 – to acknowledge, admit.[6]
  • 1533 – to know again.[3]
  • 1548–49 – to acknowledge as valid.[3][6]
  • 1637 – to reconnoitre.[6]
  • early 18th century – to identify by a feature.[5]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To know someone or something because one has seen, heard or experienced them before.
  2. To accept that something is true or important: recognize a problem.
  3. To accept officially as legal or valid: recognize a new state.
  4. To show appreciation of someone's work or achievement.
  5. To allow someone to speak in a meeting.

Word family

  • recognizable
  • recognizably
  • recognizer
  • recognizability
  • derecognize
  • unrecognizable
  • recognizance
  • recognizee
  • recognition
  • reconnaissance
  • acknowledge
  • cognition
  • reconnoitre
  • know

Usage notes

The spelling recognise is common in British English.[10]

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 g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
  9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins