Etymology

recidivist

R1E1C3I1D2I1V4I1S1T1

Today it means: One who falls back into prior habits, especially criminal habits. Full definition →

French récidiviste ← Latin recidīvus
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Latin · derived fromrecidīvus“returning, recurring”
  2. French · derived fromrécidiviste
  3. English todayrecidivist

From French récidiviste, from Latin recidīvus (“returning, recurring”). Compare recidivous, -ist. By surface analysis, recidive + -ist.

Words from the same roots

Latinrecidīvus all →

recidivismrecidivaterecidive

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.