recurro

Forms

recurrō (present infinitive recurrere, perfect active recurrī, supine recursum); third conjugation^[1] A reduplicated perfect recucurrit occurs only in Paulinus of Nola.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- + currō (“to run”).^[3][1] De Vaan traces currō to Proto-Italic *korse/o- (“to run”) and Proto-Indo-European *kr̥s-e/o- (“to run”).^[4] Cognate with Ancient Greek ἐπίκουρος (epíkouros, “helper”) and Old Irish carr (“vehicle”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first example in the OLD is in Plautus, “I run back to the old woman”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It means to run or hurry back, and of heavenly bodies to return in their course, as Virgil's sun looking on both oceans as it returns.^[3] Of things it is to run or fall back, as in Seneca, or to run backwards, as Ovid's river flowing back to its source.^[3] Horace uses it of the return of winter in the year's cycle and of going back in thought.^[3] It also means to revert to a former state, as in Cicero, and in Pliny the Younger to recur to the mind.^[3] Quintilian uses it of arguments that cannot be reversed, and Columella of having recourse to something.^[3] Church Latin glosses it “run back, come back, return, recur”.^[5] English recur first meant to recover from illness, in the late 14th century, and to return from the mid-15th century.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of running back.^[3][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of things returning whence they came.^[3][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of the sun's course.^[3][7]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of the return of winter and of thought.^[3][7]
• 1st century AD – Columella of having recourse to something.^[3][7]
• mid-15th century – English recur in the sense “to return”.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To run or hurry back; of heavenly bodies, to return; of things, to fall back, run backwards.^[3][2][1]
2. To return in a cycle, come back.^[3][1]
3. To go back in thought; to recur to the mind.^[3][5]
4. To revert to a former state.^[3][1]
5. Of a process, to run in reverse.^[3]
6. To have recourse to, fall back on.^[3]

Word family

• recursiō
• recursus
• recursō

Related words

• currō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de