Etymologically
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recommend

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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

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)