recurrent

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin recurrēns (“running back”), the present participle of recurrō (“to run back, return”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the source of recur.^[7][3] Etymonline also names French récurrent, recorded from the 16th century, as a source;^[7] the OED only compares the French word, used in anatomy from 1555, with recurrente and ricorrente.^[2] The Latin verb is formed from re- (“back, again”) and currō (“to run”), from Proto-Indo-European *kers- (“to run”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In anatomy, of a nerve or blood vessel that turns back on itself and runs the opposite way: 1578, in John Banister's Historie of Man.^[2][3] Etymonline dates the noun, a recurrent artery or nerve, to the 1590s,^[7] and Dictionary.com dates the word to 1590–1600.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a technical term of anatomy, from the Latin sense "running back".^[2][6] The general sense "occurring again, especially regularly" followed in 1629, in a sermon of Lancelot Andrewes,^[2] and in medicine it was used from 1666 of a disease or symptom that returns after remission.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "returning from time to time", with a quotation about recurrent pains.^[9] Several rarer senses died out: a verse that reads the same backwards and forwards, a palindrome (1605–1821), and "returning quickly" (1656).^[2] Later technical uses include multiple twinning in crystallography (1813) and recurrent sensibility in physiology (1847).^[2]

Timeline

• 1578 – of a nerve or vessel, turning back on itself.^[2][3]
• 1605 – noun, a palindromic verse (obsolete by 1751).^[2]
• 1615 – noun, a recurrent nerve or blood vessel.^[2]
• 1629 – occurring again, especially regularly.^[2] Etymonline dates the sense to the 1660s.^[7]
• 1666 – in medicine, of a disease that returns after remission.^[2]
• 1813 – in crystallography, of multiple twinning.^[2]
• 1847 – in physiology, of recurrent sensibility.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Happening again or repeatedly, often at regular intervals: She suffered from recurrent headaches all winter.^[10][3][2]
2. (anatomy) Of a nerve or a branch of a blood vessel: turning back so as to run in the opposite direction.^[10][3][2]
3. (medicine) Of a disease or symptom: returning after a remission or apparent cure.^[2][4]

Noun

1. (anatomy) A recurrent nerve or blood vessel.^[2][4]

Word family

• recurrently
• unrecurrent
• nonrecurrent

Related words

• recurrence
• recur
• current
• course
• occur
• incur

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins