recidivate means to relapse into a previous pattern of behavior, especially to commit new offenses after having been punished or sanctioned for earlier ones. It carries an Arena rating of 1568, earned across 93 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, recidivate ranks #2,643 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #2,731 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #3,317 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #3,515 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
recidivate is pronounced /rɪˈsɪdɪveɪt/.
Why “recidivate” is a great word
RECIDIVATE — [Verb] To relapse into a previous pattern of behavior, especially to commit new offenses after having been punished or sanctioned for earlier ones. From Medieval Latin recidīvātus, past participle of recidīvāre, from Latin recidīvus ("returning, recurring") + the verb-forming suffix -ate. First attested in English in the 1610s. Unlike "relapse" (which concerns a return to illness) or "reoffend" (a blunt legalism), to recidivate is to surrender to a gravitational pull older than law—a falling back into a well-worn groove. It is the parolee's worn shoes tracing the same path to the same doorway, the addict's hands performing their old, betraying ritual by muscle memory, and the gambler, solemnly sworn off, lighting a cigarette in the casino's neon glow. It is the body remembering its own failure as a kind of home.
Etymology
Adapted borrowing of Medieval Latin recidīvātus + -ate (verb-forming suffix), past participle of recidīvō, from Latin recidīvus (“returning, recurring”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix). Compare French récidiver. By surface analysis, recidive + -ate
verb
- To relapse into a previous pattern of behavior, especially to commit new offenses after having been punished or sanctioned for earlier ones.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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