recaer

Recaer is a Spanish verb meaning to relapse or fall back into a previous condition, habit, or illness after a period of improvement. The prefix re- signals repetition, and the root comes from caer, “to fall.” The word is primarily used in intransitive sense, often with the preposition en to indicate relapse into a state or behavior (recaer en la adicción, recaer en la depresión). It can also occur in the construction volver a recaer to emphasize recurrence.

Usage and contexts: Recaer describes the recurrence of symptoms, dependence, or problematic conduct after a period of remission or abstinence. It is common in medical, psychological, addiction, and criminological language. The expression recaída is the related noun meaning relapse.

Conjugation note: Recaer follows typical -er verb patterns, with forms that resemble caer. For example, present indicative forms include yo recaigo, tú recaes, él recae, and past forms such as recaí or recayó appear in the appropriate tenses. As with many Spanish verbs, exact conjugation depends on the tense and mood.

Examples: El paciente volvió a recaer. Tras la mejoría, volvió a recaer en la ansiedad. La recaída puede complicar el tratamiento. Recidivar, a related term, is often used in legal contexts to describe criminal relapse.

See also: recaída, recidivar, recaer en la tentación. Translation: to relapse.