Etymologically
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recurro

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [rɛˈkʊr.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [reˈkur.ro][1]

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

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