Etymograph

English

receive

Receive comes from Old French recevoir, from Latin recipiō ‘to take back, accept’, and ultimately from Latin capiō ‘to take’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcapiō1‘to take’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErecipiō1‘to take back, accept’
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400recevoir1
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500receyven1
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1603receive1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English receive
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes […]: “I cannot receive [translating recevoir] that manner, whereby we…”.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcapiōWiktionary, English receive‘to take’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErecipiōWiktionary, English receive‘to take back, accept’
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400recevoirWiktionary, English receive
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500receyvenWiktionary, English receive
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1603receiveWiktionary, English receive. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes […]: “I cannot receive [translating recevoir] that manner, whereby we…”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with receive, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *kap-

  • had ← hadde ← hæfde ← *habdaz ← *habjaną
  • head ← efd ← hēafod ← *haubud ← *haubudą
  • capital ← capitale ← capitulum ← caput ← *kaput
  • heavy ← hevy ← hefiġ ← *habīg ← *habīgaz
  • captain ← capitain ← capitaine ← capitāneus ← caput
  • catch ← cacchen ← cachier
  • except ← excepter ← exceptus ← excipiō
  • capacity ← capacite ← capacite ← capācitās
  • behavior ← behavoure
  • chapter ← chapitre ← chapitre ← capitulum ← caput
  • escape ← escapen ← escaper ← *excappāre ← cappa
  • heavily ← hevely ← hefiġlīċe ← hefiġ ← *habīgaz

311 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

verb To be given, sent, or paid something.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “receive”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Latin capiō / receive