December 18, 2005, 10:23
wordnerdReoccur; recur
Are
recurred and
reoccured both words in good standing, and if so, do you see any difference between the two?
December 18, 2005, 10:57
arnieI've always used
recur and that's the only version in most of the dictionaries.
Reoccur doesn't seem to be counted as a 'real' word, although I've seem it used often enough. I found that there were 363K ghits for
reoccur but 3.4M for
recur.
December 18, 2005, 14:06
SeanahanI think this is similar to "conferring" and "conferencing", the latter of which is occasionally used to mean the former.
December 18, 2005, 18:33
KallehAt first I thought it was like "regardless" and "irregardless" and "orient" and "orientate," but I don't know. The COED seems to distinguish them a bit. It says that "reoccur" is to "occur again or repeatedly," and similarly "recur" is defined as to "occur again." However, instead of "recur" meaning to occur "repeatedly," it says, "(of a thought, image, etc.) come back to one’s mind." Does anyone know of this difference between the two words?
December 26, 2005, 13:44
shufitzIf I read your quotes right, COED is saying that either
recur or
reoccur applies when something happens a second time, but only
reoccur applies to something that happens repeatedly, over and over and over again.
I'd think they have it precisely wrong: that
recur implies "over and over", and
reoccur applies only to a second appearance or occurrence, not to a successive series.
December 26, 2005, 19:07
KallehI am not sure that I have used "reoccur" before; I tend to use "recur," so I am not familiar with the distinction. Here is the COED link to
recur and to
reoccur.
December 26, 2005, 23:39
aputI look rather askance at 'reoccur': for me the natural term for this is 'recur', and I think I've changed it in editing other people's writing. However, 'recur', as the older or more established term, might have acquired connotations for some people that make it marginally less suitable for the simplest literal sense. 'Recur' might imply some regularity, for example, as when we say a decimal expansion recurs.
December 29, 2005, 18:27
shufitzOne of OED's definitions of 'recur' is "
Of events, facts, states, etc.: To occur, happen, take place, appear, again. (Common in 19th c.)," and for that it adds, "
The context usually indicates repeated re-occurrence."
Similarly, 'recurrent' is defined as "
3. Occurring or coming again (esp. frequently or periodically); reappearing. "
So it seems that while
reoccur has the sense of 'again',
recur has somewhat the sense of 'over and over again'.