recoil

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English recoilen, also reculen and recuilen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman recuiler, Old French reculer (“to go back, retreat, give ground; to drive back”),^[5][3][6] formed from re- (“back”) and cul (“backside”), from Latin cūlus (“backside, buttocks”).^{[5][7][8][9][10]} Etymonline and Barnhart pass through Vulgar Latin *reculō,^[3][4] and the OED compares Medieval Latin reculō, recorded about 1200 in a British source, Old Occitan recular, Spanish recular, Portuguese recuar and Italian rinculare.^[5][2] Partridge compares Old Irish cúl (“the back”) and a Sanskrit word meaning a rearguard;^[11][10] the American Heritage Dictionary refers the Latin noun to Proto-Indo-European *(s)keu- (“to cover, conceal”).^[7] The OED thinks the spelling with -oi- arose by analogy with words in which the Middle English vowel varied between -oi- and -ui-, perhaps coil beside cull,^[5] and Ayto stresses that the word has no connection with coil.^[10] The noun was formed from the verb, partly after recul.^[5][4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To beat or drive back, to make retreat: before 1225, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[5][2][4] Etymonline dates this transitive sense to about 1200.^[3] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from 1155, already in the senses "push back" and "retreat".^[6]

Semantic evolution

The intransitive sense, to retreat before an enemy, followed in Middle English (about 1330),^[5][3][2] and the noun, a retreat, is recorded from about 1330, in Arthour and Merlin.^[5][4] Caxton used the verb from about 1473 for staggering back from a blow and for withdrawing to a place.^[5] The sense "to shrink back in fear or disgust" is recorded from 1513, as a figurative use of drawing back,^[4][12] and that of a firearm springing back when fired from 1530, in Palsgrave;^[4] Etymonline dates it to the 1520s.^[3] The noun was rare until the late 16th century, when it took the senses of a flinching (1567) and of the kick of a gun (1575).^[4][5][3] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as "to rush back in consequence of resistance".^[13] The noun was used in physics from 1901 for the movement of particles apart after a collision or emission.^[5][14] The transitive senses of the verb are now obsolete.^[15][5]

Timeline

• before 1225 – to beat or drive back.^[5][2]
• c. 1330 – noun, a retreat; verb, to retreat before an enemy.^[5]
• c. 1473 – to stagger back from a blow.^[5]
• 1513 – to shrink back in fear or disgust.^[4]
• 1530 – of a firearm, to spring back when fired.^[4]
• 1567 – noun, a flinching or shrinking back.^[5]
• 1575 – noun, the kick of a gun when fired.^[5][4][3]
• 1583 – noun, a rebound.^[5]
• 1809 – noun, the return of an elastic material to its shape.^[5]
• 1901 – noun, in physics, the movement of particles apart.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To draw back suddenly in fear, horror or disgust: She recoiled at the smell from the drain.^[14][15]
2. To spring or jerk back, as a gun does when fired or as a thing does after an impact.^[14][15]
3. To fall back under force or pressure; to retreat.^[15][5]
4. To come back to harm the one who started something: The scheme recoiled on its author.^[14][13]
5. (physics) Of a particle or nucleus, to move back as a result of emitting a photon or particle.^[14]
6. (obsolete) To drive back; to force to retreat.^[15][5]

Noun

1. The backward kick of a gun when it is fired, or the distance it moves.^[14][15][5]
2. The act of recoiling; a flinching or shrinking back.^[15][5]
3. A rebound or springing back, as of an elastic material.^[15][5]
4. (physics) The motion of a particle or nucleus caused by a collision or by emitting radiation.^[14][5]

Word family

• recoiler
• recoilingly
• nonrecoil
• recoilless

Related words

• culet
• cul-de-sac
• coil

Usage notes

As a noun the word is now usually stressed on the first syllable; the OED notes that dictionaries gave only the second-syllable stress until the mid 20th century.^[5] A separate verb recoil, to coil again, was formed from re- and coil in 1792.^[5][16]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
12. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
16. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House