recipere

Recipere is a Latin verb meaning to take back, to recover or regain possession, and also more broadly to receive, to accept, or to adopt. In classical usage it covers both physical reception (receiving an object) and more abstract senses such as receiving favor, accepting a proposal, or returning to a state or place. It can describe regaining health, taking one’s place again, or accepting a gift or offer.

Etymology and forms: Recipere belongs to the third conjugation of the Latin -io type. Its principal parts are recipere, recipio, recepi, receptum. The present active indicative is recipio, recipis, recipit, recipimus, recipitis, recipiunt; the imperfect is recepebam, recepebas, etc. The perfect active is recepi, recepisti, recepit, recepimus, recepistis, receperunt. The supine is receptum and the past participle is receptus. The imperative singular is recipe (Take!) and the plural is recipite.

Usage notes: In Latin, recipere governs a direct object that is what is taken or received, and it can also express the notion of taking back or reclaiming something. It yields related nouns such as receptio (the act of receiving, reception) and receptum (the thing received or a recept, literally a thing taken back). The verb also serves in phrases denoting adopting or welcoming someone or something, and in medical or legal Latin contexts appears in idioms related to taking or receiving cures, judgments, or possession.

Derivatives and legacy: English inherits several descendants from recipere, including receive, receipt, recipient, receptive, and receptacle. The imperative recipe became famed in medieval medicine and is the origin of the modern English word recipe in the sense of a set of instructions, notably a medical prescription introduced by the Latin imperative recipe, Take this.

See also: reception, receptacle, receptivity.