recur

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English recurren,^[2][3] borrowed from Latin recurrō (“to run back, return; to go back in thought; to have recourse”),^[4][5][6][7] formed from re- (“back, again”) and currō (“to run”),^[4][5][7] from Proto-Indo-European *kers- (“to run”).^[5][7] The OED compares Anglo-Norman recurre, Middle French recourir, Old Occitan recorre, Spanish recorrer and Italian ricorrer, and the earlier English verb recourse.^[4] Etymonline starts the word in the late 14th century with recuren, "to recover from illness",^[5] but the MED derives that Middle English verb from Latin recūrō,^[8] and Benson's concordance files it under the OED's recure.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To resort or have recourse to someone or something for help or argument: 1511–12, in the Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland.^[4] Merriam-Webster dates this sense to about 1512,^[3] and Barnhart to 1529.^[6] The Shorter Oxford dates the sense "to return to a place" to late Middle English and Etymonline to the mid-15th century,^[10][5] but the OED has it only from 1612.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The first English senses follow the Latin ones: having recourse to someone, going back to a place, and going back in thought or speech.^[4][10] Etymonline notes that the verb was originally used of persons,^[5] and thoughts and ideas came to be its subject in the 17th century: Etymonline dates "return to the mind" to the 1620s,^[5] the OED to 1651.^[4] Johnson (1755) lists "to come back to the thought" first and "to have recourse to" second.^[11] The sense "to happen again" is not found in Latin or French, the OED notes, and it compares occur.^[4] It is recorded from 1636 in the OED,^[4] from the 1670s in Etymonline^[5] and 1673 in Barnhart, who adds that it became common only in the 1800s.^[6] From the same period it was used of a disease or symptom (1670).^[4] In mathematics it has been used of repeating figures in a decimal fraction since 1796,^[4] the source of recurring decimal.^[10]

Timeline

• 1511 – to resort, to have recourse.^[4]
• 1612 – to return to a place (obsolete by 1872).^[4]
• 1616 – to run or move back, recede (obsolete by 1788).^[4]
• 1620 – to go back in thought, memory or speech.^[4][6]
• 1636 – of an event, to happen again.^[4]
• 1651 – of a thought or image, to come back to the mind.^[4]
• before 1653 – of a question, to come up again.^[4]
• 1670 – of a disease or symptom, to appear again.^[4]
• 1796 – in mathematics, of figures in a decimal, to repeat.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To happen again, especially repeatedly or at regular intervals: The floods recur almost every spring.^[12][4][10]
2. Of a disease or symptom, to appear again after seeming to end.^[4]
3. Of a thought, image or dream, to come back to the mind.^[12][4]
4. Of a question or problem, to come up again.^[12][3][4]
5. To go back in thought or speech to a subject.^[3][4]
6. In mathematics, of a figure or group of figures in a decimal fraction, to repeat indefinitely.^[12][4]
7. To have recourse; to resort; now rare.^[3][4]
8. (obsolete, 1612–1872) To return to a place.^[4][10]

Word family

• recurrence
• recurrent

Related words

• occur
• recourse
• current
• courier
• cursor
• reoccur

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ 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)
9. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
10. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins