recommend

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˌrek.əˈmend/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English recomenden,^[2][3] borrowed from Medieval Latin recommendāre,^[2][4][5] from Latin re-, here probably intensive,^[2][3][6] and commendāre (“to commit to one's care, commend”),^[3][2] the source of commend.^[2][4] Merriam-Webster gives it through Anglo-French recommender.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

“To commit, dedicate”, especially oneself or one's soul to God: about 1375 in Barnhart, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales,^[2] and about 1386 in the OED.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to praise, present as worthy” is from about 1378, in Piers Plowman,^[2] 1377 in the OED.^[8] In Middle and early modern English recommend and the now obsolete recommand were used without distinction for commending someone to another, sending someone's regards and entrusting.^[2] “To make acceptable or attractive”, as in a quality that recommends a person, is from the 17th century,^[4] and “to advise, urge that something be done” from 1746.^[3] Recommendation is from 1408, first as a greeting, borrowed from Old French and Medieval Latin.^[2] In Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire and American dialect a recommend was a recommendation.^[9][8]

Timeline

• c. 1375 – to commit to God.^[2]
• c. 1378 – to praise as worthy.^[2]
• 1408 – recommendation.^[2]
• 17th century – to make acceptable.^[4]
• 1746 – to advise.^[3]
• 1806 – noun, a recommendation.^[8]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To present as worthy or suitable; to endorse: recommended her for the job.
2. To advise or counsel: recommended that we leave early.
3. To make attractive or acceptable: a plan with much to recommend it.
4. (archaic) To commit to another's care; to entrust.

Word family

• recommendable
• recommender
• recommendatory

Related words

• recommendation
• commend
• command

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 h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)