Etymologically
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recens

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈrɛ.kẽːs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈrɛː.t͡ʃens][1]

Forms

recēns (genitive recentis, comparative recentior, superlative recentissimus); third-declension one-termination adjective[1]

Etymology

It is probably a compound, inherited from Proto-Italic *wre-kent(i)-, of re- (“again”) and a word for “young, first”, from Proto-Indo-European *ken-t- (“young, new”).[2][3][1] The TLL explains the meaning as “having a new beginning”.[3]

Cognate with Old Irish cét- (“first”), Sanskrit कन्या (kanyā́, “girl”) and Ancient Greek καινός (kainós, “new”).[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus onwards,[2][4] who says that a fish “is worthless unless it is fresh”.[5]

Semantic evolution

It meant recent, lately done or made, as in Terence's “while this grief is fresh”, and of troops fresh and not yet tired, as in Caesar.[5] Of food it meant fresh, as Cato's fresh cheese, and with ab it meant fresh from, as a foal just born.[5] Things were fresh in the memory, and later writers were called recentes, “modern”.[5][6] It was also an adverb, “lately, just”.[5]

Medieval Latin used it for food that was not salted,[7][4] and English law spoke of vis recens, “fresh force”.[8] It survives as Italian and Portuguese recente and Spanish reciente, and English took recent in the early 15th century.[1][9]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of fresh fish.[5][4]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of fresh grief.[5][4]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of fresh cheese.[5][4]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of fresh troops.[5][4]
  • early 15th century – English recent is first recorded, of fresh food.[9]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Recent, new, lately made or done.[5][10]
  2. (of troops) Fresh, not tired.[5][1]
  3. (of food) Fresh.[5]
  4. recens ab Fresh from, just after.[5]
  5. Fresh in the memory.[5]
  6. (of writers) Modern.[6][1]
  7. (Medieval Latin, of food) Unsalted.[7]

Adverb

  1. Lately, recently, just.[5][1]

Word family

  • recentarius
  • recentor

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes novus, new as what did not exist before, the opposite of antiquus, from recens, new as what has not long existed, the opposite of vetus.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper