June 15, 2019
recidivism \rih-SID-uh-viz-um\ noun
: a tendency to relapse into a previouscondition or mode of behavior; especially : relapse into criminalbehavior
Examples:
The judge took the guilty felon's rateof recidivism into account when she deliberated her sentence.
"She said her main purpose is to support seniors' efforts to 'age in place' with dignity, rather than facepremature institutionalization. Her outreach has reduced recidivism intohospitals for many seniors." — MortMazor, The Sun-Sentinel (FortLauderdale, Florida), 8 May 2019
Did you know?
Recidivism means literally "a fallingback" and usually implies "into bad habits." It comes from the Latin wordrecidivus, which means "recurring." Recidivus itself comes from the Latinverb recidere, which is a composite of the prefix re- and the verb cadere(meaning "to fall") and means "to fallback." Recidivists tend to relapse, or "fall back," into old habits and particularly crime. Deciduous and incident are two other English wordsthat have roots in cadere. Deciduouscomes from the verb decidere (de-plus cadere), which means "to fall off." And incident comes from incidere (in-plus cadere), which means "to fallinto."
re·cid·i·vism\ri-si-d-vi-zm\noun- : a tendency to relapse into a previouscondition or mode of behavior; especially : relapse into criminalbehavior
First use: 1886
|
|