recreant

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /ˈrɛkriənt/ UK /ˈrɛkriənt/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

adj
cowardly or unfaithful; a coward or traitor

The recreant knight fled the field, abandoning his lord.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · cowardly or unfaithful; a... cowardly craven faithless traitorous disloyal apostate poltroon

Opposites

brave loyal faithful valiant

Word family

Derived forms recreancerecreancyrecreantly

Related forms creed credence credo

Etymology

From Old French recreant ('confessing oneself beaten, cowardly'), present participle of recroire ('to yield, give up'), from re- + croire ('to believe'), from Latin credere ('to believe, trust').

recreant Old French credere Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# recreant

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /ˈrɛkriənt/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈrɛkriənt/

## Meanings
1. cowardly or unfaithful; a coward or traitor

## Examples
- The recreant knight fled the field, abandoning his lord.

## Synonyms
- cowardly
- craven
- faithless
- traitorous
- disloyal
- apostate
- poltroon

## Antonyms
- brave
- loyal
- faithful
- valiant

## Derived Forms
- recreance
- recreancy
- recreantly

## Related Forms
- creed
- credence
- credo

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: recreant
- Root: credere - to believe

## Etymology
From Old French recreant ('confessing oneself beaten, cowardly'), present participle of recroire ('to yield, give up'), from re- + croire ('to believe'), from Latin credere ('to believe, trust').

## AI Etymology
Recreant comes from Old French recreant ('confessing oneself beaten, cowardly'), present participle of recroire ('to yield, give up'), from re- + croire ('to believe'), from Latin credere ('to believe, trust'). The historical chain includes Old French recreant and Latin credere. Older glosses in the chain include "confessing oneself beaten, cowardly", "to yield, give up", "to believe", and "to believe, trust", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, recreant is best read as compound and borrowing, yielding an English adjective and noun shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as a adjective and noun, with the sense "cowardly or unfaithful; a coward or traitor". English derivatives include recreance, recreancy, and recreantly; related forms include creed, credence, and credo. The result is an English adjective and noun whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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