Etymograph

English

recess

Recess comes from Latin recessus ‘act of going back, departure, receding, retiring’, and goes back to cēdō.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcēdō1
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErecēdō1‘to go back, give ground, retire, withdraw’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErecessus2‘act of going back, departure, receding, retiring’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1536recess2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin recessus
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English recess
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1536, Cuthbert Tunstall: “And his Receſſe from the Church, ye proffe not…”.

Earlier history not traced here. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcēdōWiktionary, Latin recessus
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErecēdōWiktionary, Latin recessus‘to go back, give ground, retire, withdraw’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErecessusWiktionary, English recess‘act of going back, departure, receding, retiring’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1536recessWiktionary, English recess. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1536, Cuthbert Tunstall: “And his Receſſe from the Church, ye proffe not…”

The story

The noun is borrowed from Latin recessus (‘act of going back, departure, receding, retiring; (figuratively) retreat, withdrawal; (metonymically) distant, secluded, or secret spot, corner, nook, retreat; recessed part, indentation’) (also Late Latin recessus (‘decree or resolution of the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire’)), from recēdō (‘to go back, recede, retire, withdraw; to go away, depart; (by extension) to disappear, vanish; to separate; to stand back, be distant; to yield’) (from re- (prefix meaning ‘back, backwards’) + cēdō (‘to go, move, proceed’)) + -tus (suffix forming action nouns from verbs); influenced by Middle French recès, French recès (‘a break, pause; break between classes in school; school vacation; ebbing of tide; reduction’) (also Anglo-Norman recès and Old French recès (‘hiding place; hollow’). Noun sense 5 (‘decree or resolution of the diet of the Holy Roman Empire, etc.’) is possibly influenced by Italian recesso and refers to a decree or resolution made just before a meeting ends.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Latin cēdō

process, success, necessary, succeed, procedure, cease, accessible, excessive, excess, concede, precedent, predecessor, concession, accession, cessation, cede, secession, intercession, precession, 28 more

Today it means

noun A depressed, hollow, or indented space; also, a hole or opening.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “recess”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin recessus. 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 cēdō / recess

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