English
recessive
Recessive comes from Latin recēdō ‘to stand back, recede, be distant or retired’, from cēdō ‘to be in motion, go, move’, and perhaps ultimately from Proto-Italic *kezdō.
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kezdō1uncertain
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcēdō2‘to be in motion, go, move’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErecēdō3‘to stand back, recede, be distant or retired’
- Englishearliest quotation 1915recessive3
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin cedo
- 2 Wiktionary, Latin recedo
- 3 Wiktionary, English recessive
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1915, Reginald Crundall Punnett, Mimicty in Butterflies: “Suppose, for example, that we started with a population…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kezdōWiktionary, Latin cedouncertain
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcēdōWiktionary, Latin recedo‘to be in motion, go, move’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErecēdōWiktionary, English recessive‘to stand back, recede, be distant or retired’
- Englishearliest quotation 1915recessiveWiktionary, English recessive. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1915, Reginald Crundall Punnett, Mimicty in Butterflies: “Suppose, for example, that we started with a population…”
Linked words
through Proto-Italic *kezdō
successor, succession, excessive, procession, successive, inaccessible, 9 more
through Latin cēdō ‘to be in motion, go, move’
process, success, necessary, procedure, succeed, cease, excess, accessible, precedent, concede, predecessor, concession, accession, cessation, cede, secession, intercession, precession, 29 more
Today it means
adj Going back; receding.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “recessive”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin cedo, Latin recedo. 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 / Proto-Italic *kezdō / recessive