recurrencen.
/rᵻˈkʌrəns/, /rᵻˈkʌrn̩s/, U.S. /rəˈkərəns/, /riˈkərəns/ 1.
a. An instance of recurring; a further occurrence.
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1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §37 As for the Tenth, Twelfth, Thirteenth [sc. concords in music], and so in infinitum; they be but Recurrences of the Former.
1759 S. Johnson Idler 1 Sept. 273 Every recurrence [of parts of knowledge] would reinstate them in their former place.
1779 S. Johnson Dryden in Pref. Wks. Eng. Poets III. 188 He who writes much, will not easily escape a manner, such a recurrence of particular modes as may be easily noted... His stile could not easily be imitated.
1836 M. R. Mitford in A. G. L'Estrange Life M. R. Mitford (1870) III. iv. 62 He brought on a recurrence of an old injury to the tendon under the left knee.
1863 ‘G. Eliot’ Romola III. xiii. 132 An indistinct recurrence of impressions which blended themselves with her agitating fears.
1898 E. N. Westcott David Harum x. 89 Occasional hints of clemency and promise being followed by recurrences which were as irritating as a personal affront.
1917 E. R. Burroughs Princess of Mars ii. 19 A recurrence of the rustling sound from the thing which now seemed..to be creeping stealthily upon me.
1976 K. Amis Alteration ii. 47 Whether or not these outbreaks were indeed isolated, we must fear a recurrence.
2006 J. Stranks Manager's Guide to Health & Safety at Work (ed. 8) iii. 64 It is essential..that organisations learn from their mistakes with a view to preventing recurrences of these costly losses.
b. The fact of recurring; frequent or periodic occurrence.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > frequency > [noun] > recurrence
return1567
revolution1593
recurrence1641
recurrency1652
repeatedness1664
resurgence1798
resurgency1810
1641 G. Langbaine in J. Cheke Hurt of Sedicion (new ed.) Pref. sig. a2 There is a continuall recurrence of the same Pageants.
1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica iii. i. 106 Although the opinion at present be reasonable well suppressed, yet from the..faithfull recurrence of error, it is not improbable, it may revive..againe.
1753 J. Warton in C. Pitt tr. Virgil Æneid xii, in J. Warton et al. tr. Virgil Wks. IV. 430 (note) The recurrence of the same sound.
1790 W. Paley Horæ Paulinæ i. 12 The perpetual recurrence of names of persons and places.
1861 R. C. Trench Comm. Epist. 7 Churches Asia 16 The constant recurrence of this language in all descriptions of our Lord's second advent is very remarkable.
1877 M. Oliphant Makers of Florence (ed. 2) vi. 172 So little can the world guard itself as it grows older from the recurrence of the same follies.
1927 A. Conan Doyle Case-bk. Sherlock Holmes 228 I think it may be quite possible to keep the matter to ourselves, and also to prevent its recurrence now that we have a free hand.
1993 Atlantic June 69/1 The recurrence of the theme of intermarriage reflected the anxiety of the New York audience.
c. Medicine. The return of symptoms, esp. periodically or repeatedly, in the course of a disease or condition; the return of a disease after a period of remission; spec. the reappearance of a tumour or other lesion after treatment, esp. in or near its original location. Also: an instance of this; (concrete) a recurrent tumour or lesion.
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1772 J. Gregory Elements Pract. Physic 29 There seems likely to be some analogy between the proximate causes of intermittents, and some disease where the nervous system is affected,..by their periodical recurrence.
1805 B. Rush Med. Inq. & Observ. (rev. ed.) III. 51 I have endeavoured to account for the recurrence of the paroxysm of fever, in common with all other periodical diseases, by means of a natural or adventitious association of motions.
1858 G. B. Wood Treat. Pract. Med. (ed. 5) I. 264 Hectic fever, however, may be distinguished by the irregularity in the recurrence of its paroxysms.
1896 Lancet 25 Apr. 1133/2 In two or three instances, however, I have excised both the growth and the recurrence.
1905 C. W. Allen et al. Radiotherapy & Phototherapy viii. 202 In several of my patients discharged with smooth cicatrix there has been a slight recurrence [of epithelioma].
1945 Amer. Jrnl. Surg. 67 52/2 In non-surgical treatment or in the treatment of recurrences, roentgen therapy is recommended.
1971 A. Phillips & J. Rakusen Our Bodies Ourselves (1978) vii. 165 Breast cancer is a chronic disease. It must be monitored in order to catch early any recurrence or metastasis.
2007 European Urol. 51 404/1 Fifty to 70% of these patients with superficial tumours have one or more recurrences after the initial treatment.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > advantage > usefulness > use (made of things) > recourse > [noun]
recourse?c1425
resort?a1439
recurrence1697
resource1720
resorting1778
1697 T. Taylor Serm. preach'd in Burcester 11 The designs of Providence, will be answer'd by the very intention of Nature, without recurrence to Miracles.
1714 Spes Fidelium 40 If then none of these modern Explications will come up to the Sense and Meaning of this Millenium or Fifth Monarchy..then of a Necessity we must have Recurrence to that Age of the Church, where, in the greatest Probability, we may find it.
1767 A. Campbell Lexiphanes 33 Having instantaneous recurrence to fistical ratiocination.
1804 Ld. Castlereagh in Marquess Wellesley Select. Despatches (1877) 262 Such an alliance will occasion frequent recurrence to arms.
1825 T. Jefferson Autobiogr. in Wks. (1859) I. 61 These memoranda were on loose papers, bundled up without order, and difficult of recurrence.
1845 S. Austin tr. L. von Ranke Hist. Reformation in Germany (ed. 2) I. 153 A permanent imperial council, which might relieve him and the States from incessant recurrence to the diets.
3. The action or an act of recurring to something in thought, memory, or speech. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > memory > retrospection, reminiscence > [noun] > returning to a topic
retrogradation1587
retire1589
retrospection1685
recurrence1751
1751 S. Johnson Rambler No. 173. ⁋6 By the natural recurrence of the mind to its common employment.
1816 J. Austen Emma II. iv. 71 To allow no time for insidious applications or dangerous recurrences to the past. View more context for this quotation
1834 H. Martineau Farrers of Budge-Row vii. 120 How many recurrences of mind had she to these articles!
1862 C. Stretton Mem. Chequered Life I. 115 The announcement of dinner being served, effectually put a stop to any recurrence to the subject.
1885 W. D. Howells Rise Silas Lapham xiv. 271 The only thing like a recurrence to what they had been saying was Bromfield Corey's warning Mrs. Lapham..against Miss Kingsbury.
1904 H. James Golden Bowl II. xxvii. 63 Silences that persisted through his felt effort to treat her recurrence to the part he had lately played.
4.
a. Return or reversion to a state, activity, etc.
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the world > time > change > change to something else, transformation > change of direction, reversion > [noun]
gain-turning1340
reversion1547
regression1583
unmaking1587
retrogradation1638
repedation1646
metathesis1653
recommencement1655
antecedency1656
remutation1692
reconversion1759
relapsing1772
recurrence1789
revertal1824
switcheroo1933
1789 T. Jefferson Let. 15 Mar. in Papers (1958) XIV. 662 Judicious physicians say that in his exhausted state nothing could have induced a recurrence to bleeding but symptoms of relapse.
1812 G. Chalmers Hist. View Domest. Econ. Great Brit. & Ireland 477 Nothing more is wanting, than recurrence to old habits of diligence.
1855 R. Browning Ep. Karshish 197 In sedulous recurrence to his trade Whereby he earneth him the daily bread.
1862 S. Lucas Secularia 68 There is an obvious..difference in the result of a recurrence to this or that particular status.
1984 G. H. Clarfield & W. M. Wiecek Nucl. Amer. i. 7 Newlands observed that his arrangement produced a suggestive periodicity, which he called the ‘law of octaves’: a recurrence to similar chemical properties with every eighth element after helium.
b. Biology. The tendency of animals or plants produced by selective breeding to revert to an ancestral type; the reappearance of an ancestral feature in an animal or plant; = atavism n. a. Now rare.
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the world > life > biology > biological processes > genetic activity > heredity or hereditary descent > [noun] > production unlike parents > atavism
retrogression1826
atavism1833
reversion1833
recurrence1862
1862 T. H. Huxley On Knowl. Causes Phenomena Org. Nature 113 A word must be said about what is called Recurrence—the tendency of races which have been developed by selective breeding from varieties to return to their primitive type.
1864 H. Spencer Princ. Biol. I. §83 Atavism, which is the name given to the recurrence of ancestral traits, is proved by many and varied facts.
1891 Amer. Anthropologist 4 235 Cases of atavism, or recurrence to type anterior to ape or lemur, are vastly more numerous in man than in apes or lemur.
1938 Science 20 May 462/2 It was the usual practise to regard every possible arrest in development or unusual character of an organism as the persistence or recurrence of an erstwhile normal feature of the particular organism's ancestor or ancestors.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > water > flow or flowing > tide > type of tide > [noun] > ebbing or flowing out
ebba1000
ebbingc1000
fresha1552
fall1571
vale-water1589
refloat1594
reflow1610
downtide1668
recurrency1724
out1756
retroposition1836
ebb-tide1837
recurrence1857
1857 E. K. Kane Arctic Explor. 309 It would require a change in the mean summer temperature of only a few degrees to develop the periodical recurrence of open water.
1893 C. H. Parkhurst in J. Strong New Era 219 That heat thrown off, wonderfully modifies the climate of all the northern portion of Europe, and there is wrought the recurrence of the cold polar waters, which return to the Gulf.
Compounds
C1.
recurrence frequency n.
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1937 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) A. 236 201 A slight readjustment of the grid tuning condenser..enabled the operator to obtain the shortest pulse duration and the correct recurrence frequency.
1945 Amer. Speech 20 310/1 PRF, Pulse Recurrence Frequency.
1965 Wireless World Sept. 431/1 It remains now to provide a suitable pulse generator of variable recurrence frequency to fire the thyristor.
2005 Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin) (Nexis) 26 Apr. a2 It doesn't take much of a change in climate to trigger a big change in the magnitude and the recurrence frequencies of flood events.
recurrence interval n.
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1923 R. Lawson tr. A. Haas New Physics 44 in J. A. Thomson Sci. & Relig. (1925) iii. 100 In the case of a system with such a tremendous number of individuals, if we wished to state the recurrence interval of a chance arrangement sufficiently large to be detectable by the senses, the number of years which determines the period would be inconceivably large.
1965 R. G. Kazmann Mod. Hydrol. iv. 76 Statistical studies made to determine the recurrence interval of this design-flood resulted in figures ranging from 1000 to 90,000 years.
1982 R. G. Barry & R. J. Chorley Atmosphere, Weather & Climate (ed. 4) ii. 90 This is known as the recurrence interval or return period.
1990 Sci. Amer. Mar. 49/1 The best hope of determining recurrence intervals comes from a developing discipline called paleoseismology: the study of prehistoric earthquakes.
1991 New Scientist 31 Aug. 52/3 The frequency range used is 3 to 30 megahertz; the pulse recurrence frequencies range from a few hertz to several tens of hertz.
C2.
recurrence formula n. Mathematics = recurrence relation n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > algebra > [noun] > expression > with reference to preceding members of series
recurrence formula1893
recurrent relation1897
recurrence relation1912
1893 Ann. Math. 7 21 Replacing x by y in this we have A(y), which may be written as a recurrence formula.
1972 M. Kline Math. Thought xx. 453 Stirling gave the first five coefficients and a recurrence formula for determining the succeeding ones.
2006 Computer Methods Appl. Mech. & Engin. 195 6084 The numerical evaluation of Gα-coefficients is delicate due to a bad conditioning of the recurrence formula.
recurrence rate n. the rate at which something, esp. a disease or medical condition, recurs or returns (after treatment).
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1899 Med. Press & Circular 17 May 512/2 The immediate mortality from hysterectomy was higher.., while the recurrence rate was no lower.
1953 Chicago Tribune 16 Feb. i. 24/4 Treatment must be carried on for at least six to 12 months and the recurrence rate is extremely high.
2004 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 9 Dec. 1 Tamoxifen alone was found to cut recurrence rates by 50 per cent.
recurrence relation n. Mathematics an expression which defines the general member of a series in terms of or as a function of preceding members.An example of a series defined by a recurrence relation is the Fibonacci series, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, .., where each number after the first is the sum of the two preceding numbers.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > algebra > [noun] > expression > with reference to preceding members of series
recurrence formula1893
recurrent relation1897
recurrence relation1912
1912 Proc. Royal Soc. A. 87 112 Applying the recurrence relation..we have, after further reduction, [etc.].
1979 E. S. Page & L. B. Wilson Introd. Computational Combinatorics ii. 5 If such a recurrence relation can be produced, it can usually be made the basis of an algorithm for computing values of the desired function.
1993 Jrnl. Plasma Physics 49 11 Using the recurrence relations (44) and (45) and the properties of the modified Bessel functions, one can prove that the right-hand side of (50) is positive.
recurrence surface n. [after Swedish rekurrensyta (E. Granlund 1932, in Sveriges Geologiska Undersökning Ser. C. No. 373. viii. 73)] Soil Science a horizon between highly and slightly humified peat in a bog, indicative of a transition between diminished and active peat growth resulting from increased rainfall.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > structure of the earth > constituent materials > earth or soil > [noun] > horizon > specific horizons
solum1928
recurrence surface1938
palaeosol1950
palaeosoil1970
1934 Irish Naturalists' Jrnl. 5 134 To look for Granlund's ‘rekurrenz-surfaces’.]
1938 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) B. 229 402 The later conclusions of Granlund—especially with regard to the main ‘recurrence surfaces’ in raised bogs. These are well-marked phases of arrested growth and can be taken to correspond with periods of climatic dryness.
1975 J. G. Evans Environment Early Man Brit. Isles iv. 77 Resumption of peat growth, leading to the formation of ‘recurrence surfaces’, takes place when conditions of high rainfall return.
2003 Quaternary Sci. Rev. 22 367/2 Recurrence surfaces mark distinct transitions from high- to low- humified peat as a response to increased net precipitation.
recurrence time n. Mathematics the time between two successive occasions when a Markov process enters any given state.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > probability or statistics > [noun] > involving random generation > recurrence time
recurrence time1946
1943 Rev. Mod. Physics 15 54/2 (heading) The average time of recurrence of a state of fluctuation in which the molecular concentration in a sphere of air of radius a will differ from the average value by 1 percent.]
1946 Ann. Math. Statistics 17 501 For n = 0 this gives a solution of the so-called recurrence time problem first studied on simpler models by Smoluchowski.
2001 H. P. Kohler Fertility & Social Interaction vi. 164 The stationary distribution also specifies the mean recurrence time of a state i, i.e., the expected time between visits of a chain to state i.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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