Recoil

How to spell recoil

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce recoil

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does recoil mean?

1. verbTo draw or spring back suddenly, usually in fear, disgust, or as a physical reaction.
2. nounThe sudden backward movement of a gun or mechanism when discharged or released.

Recoil in a sentence

• verb

  Many people recoil at the sight of a needle during a blood test.

• noun

  The shotgun has a powerful recoil that bruised the beginner's shoulder.

• verb

  The rifle will recoil sharply against your shoulder when you fire it.

• noun

  A padded stock helps absorb the recoil during repeated firing.

Where does recoil come from?

Language of origin: French

Recoil reached English around 1300 from the Old French verb reculer, meaning 'to move backwards' or 'to retreat'. That French verb was built from re-, meaning 'back', and cul, meaning the rump or backside, which itself comes from the Latin culus, 'bottom'. The original, surprisingly earthy sense was something like 'to fall back onto one's rear', and it gradually broadened into the general idea of springing or shrinking back. By the 1500s English speakers were applying it to the sudden backward jerk of a fired gun and to the instinctive flinch of disgust or fear. The modern spelling settled with -coil, which looks like the unrelated word for a loop of rope; keeping the single 'l' and remembering the plain re- prefix is the surest guard against misspelling it.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• -coil (from Old French cul, the rump or backside, from Latin culus)