Etymograph

English

recognize

Recognize comes from Old French reconoistre ‘to recognize’, from Latin gnōscō ‘to know’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵneh₃-1‘to recognise’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵn̥h₃sḱéti1‘to recognise’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*gnōskō1‘to know’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEgnōscō1‘to know’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcognōscō2‘know’
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErecognōscō3as recognoscere‘to know again’
  7. Old Frenchc. 842–1400reconoistre3‘to recognize’
  8. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600reconoistre3
  9. Englishearliest quotation 1534recognize3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin cognosco
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin recognosco
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English recognize
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1534, Thomas Cranmer: “We do moste humbly submytte it [this treatise] to[…]your…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵneh₃-Wiktionary, Latin cognosco‘to recognise’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵn̥h₃sḱétiWiktionary, Latin cognosco‘to recognise’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*gnōskōWiktionary, Latin cognosco‘to know’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEgnōscōWiktionary, Latin cognosco‘to know’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcognōscōWiktionary, Latin recognosco‘know’
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErecognōscōWiktionary, English recognizeas recognoscere‘to know again’
  7. Old Frenchc. 842–1400reconoistreWiktionary, English recognize‘to recognize’
  8. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600reconoistreWiktionary, English recognize
  9. Englishearliest quotation 1534recognizeWiktionary, English recognize. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1534, Thomas Cranmer: “We do moste humbly submytte it [this treatise] to[…]your…”

first attested Borrowed from Middle French reconoistre, from Old French reconoistre, from Latin recognoscere, first attested in the 16th century (as stated in Wiktionary’s etymology)

The story

Borrowed from Middle French reconoistre, from Old French reconoistre, from Latin recognoscere, first attested in the 16th century. Latin had rare recognizare (‘to try by jury’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

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

through Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- ‘to recognise’

  • can ← cunnan ← *kunnan ← *kunnaną ← *ǵn̥néh₃ti
  • know ← knowen ← cnāwan ← *knāan ← *knēaną
  • could ← coude ← cūþe ← cunnan ← *kunnaną
  • normal ← normālis ← nōrma ← γνώμων
  • narrative ← narratif ← narrātīvus ← narrō ← *gnārāō
  • glory ← glorie ← glōria ← *gnōr-
  • ken ← kennen ← cennan ← cunnan ← *kannijan
  • keen ← kene ← cēne ← *kōniz
  • ignore ← ignorer ← īgnōrō
  • con ← connen ← cunnan ← *kunnan ← *kunnaną
  • norm ← norma ← γνώμων
  • ignorant ← ignōrāns ← ignōrō ← *gnō-sāō

238 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

verb To match (something or someone which one currently perceives) to a memory of some previous encounter with the same person or thing.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “recognize”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin cognosco, Latin recognosco. 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-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- / recognize