Etymologically
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recresco

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Forms

recrēscō (present infinitive recrēscere, perfect active recrēvī, supine recrētum); third conjugation[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- + crēscō (“to grow”).[1][3][4] The TLL notes that Italian ricrescere, French recroître, Spanish recrecer and Portuguese recrescer may have been formed afresh in later times rather than inherited.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lucretius (96–55 BC) says of the earth that it is drawn upon and, made good again, recrēscit, grows again.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is mostly poetic and post-Augustan.[2] Livy uses it figuratively of the family of the Scipios, likened to a stock that grows again after its trunks were cut down;[2] Ovid has it of the moon growing back to its full disc, and Pliny the Elder of cut bones growing back.[2] Paulinus of Nola uses the perfect participle in an active sense, recrētīs crīnibus, “with hair that has grown again”.[2][3] A glossary renders it with Greek πάλιν αὔξω (pálin aúxō), “I grow again”.[3]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of the earth replenished.[2][5]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it figuratively of a family.[2][4][5]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of the waxing moon.[2][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of bones growing back.[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (intransitive) To grow again, grow back.[1][2][4]
  2. (figurative) To increase again, to revive.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de