retrograde

Etymology

The adjective is borrowed from Latin retrōgradus (“going backward”),^[2][3][4][5] from retrōgradior (“to go backward”),^[2][3][4] formed from retrō- (“backward”) and gradior (“to step, go”),^[2][3][5] from Proto-Indo-European *ghredh- (“to walk, go”).^[2][3] The Oxford Dictionary of English and Hoad analyse the Latin adjective instead as retrō (“backward”) and gradus (“step”).^[6][7] The OED, revising the entry in 2010, takes it partly also from retrograde, recorded in French from before 1377 of heavenly bodies that seem to travel backwards.^[8] The verb, from 1582, is from the Latin verb directly,^[4][9][10] and the OED gives retrograder (“to go back”) as a second source.^[8] Late Latin also had the form retrogradō.^[8][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In astronomy, of a planet appearing to move backwards across the sky, from east to west: Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe, written in 1391 and dated about 1400 by its manuscript in the OED.^[8] Barnhart dates it 1392,^[11] and Etymonline to the late 14th century.^[2] Chaucer used the word, spelled retrograd, four times.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a technical term of astronomy and astrology for the apparent backward motion of a planet.^[8][2][7] From about 1500 it was used more generally of anything directed or moving backwards,^[8] and after about 1518 also of things tending to fall back into a worse or less developed state, declining or reactionary;^[8] Barnhart and Etymonline date this general sense to about 1530.^[4][2] Johnson (1755) gave "going backward" and "contrary, opposite", quoting Bacon on ambitious men who should be kept progressive and "not retrograde".^[13] In verse it described lines that read the same backwards and forwards (1653), a sense already present in French and medieval Latin.^[8] The sciences later gave it special senses: in medicine "degenerative" (1817), in botany and zoology a change into a supposedly more primitive form (1834, 1850), and in geology metamorphism caused by falling temperature or pressure (1932), the opposite of prograde.^[8] In music a retrograde is a melody played in reverse order.^[9][3] The verb first meant to turn back or reverse something (1582–1850), and after 1601 was also used of a planet moving westward;^[8] from 1613 it also meant to recede or retreat, and to decline or regress,^[8] and since 1830 it has been used of a coastline or waterfall wearing back through erosion.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – of a planet, seeming to move backwards across the sky, in Chaucer.^[8]
• c. 1500 – moving or directed backwards.^[8]
• c. 1518 – tending to decline or revert to a worse state.^[8] Barnhart dates this sense to about 1530.^[4]
• 1564 – going back along a former course.^[8]
• 1582 – verb, to turn back, reverse (now obsolete).^[8][4][9]
• 1601 – verb, of a planet, to move westward among the stars.^[8]
• 1613 – verb, to recede, retreat; to decline or regress; noun, one that degenerates.^[8][9]
• c. 1620 – adverb, backward.^[9]
• 1653 – of verse, reading the same backwards and forwards.^[8]
• 1817 – in medicine, degenerative.^[8]
• 1830 – verb, of a coastline or waterfall, to wear back by erosion.^[8]
• 1932 – in geology, of metamorphism caused by falling temperature or pressure.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Moving or directed backward; going back to an earlier position: The army made a retrograde movement toward the river.^[9][3][14]
2. In reverse or inverted order.^[3][14][9]
3. Tending to go back to an earlier, worse condition; declining or reactionary: Closing the library would be a retrograde step.^[3][14][8]
4. In astronomy and astrology, of a planet: seeming to move backwards across the sky, from east to west.^[8][14][9]
5. In astronomy, of a body's orbit or rotation: in the direction opposite to that of most bodies in the system, or to the rotation of the body it orbits.^[9][3][14]

Noun

1. In music, a melody or series of notes played in reverse order.^[9][3]
2. A person or thing that degenerates.^[9]

Adverb

1. Backward; in reverse.^[9][10]

Verb

1. Of a planet, to move or seem to move westward, against the usual direction.^[9][8][10]
2. To move back, recede or retreat.^[9][8]
3. To decline or fall back into a worse state; to regress.^[8][10]
4. (archaic) To turn back or reverse something.^[9][8]

Word family

• retrogradation
• retrogradely
• retrogradingly
• retrograde amnesia

Related words

• posigrade
• retrogress
• retrogression
• retrogressive
• retro-
• grade
• gradient
• gradual
• progress
• regress
• digress

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ 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 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
13. ^ 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 Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins