Origins
Recession means a going back, from Latin recedere (to withdraw), built from re- (back) and cedere (to go).βββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ The word entered English in the 17th century with the straightforward meaning of a withdrawal or retreat. The recessional hymn sung as clergy leave the church preserves this original spatial sense.
The economic meaning appeared in the late 1920s and early 1930s, when economists and journalists needed a word for economic decline that did not carry the severity of depression. The choice was deliberate. Depression had described economic downturns since the 1850s, but after the catastrophic events beginning in 1929, the word became associated with existential economic crisis. Recession offered a gentler alternative β etymologically, a temporary step backward rather than a crushing collapse.
The Latin verb cedere generated one of the largest word families in English through its many prefixed forms. Recede (to go back), proceed (to go forward), precede (to go before), concede (to yield together), accede (to go toward, to agree), secede (to go apart), and intercede (to go between) are all siblings. The base word cede means simply to yield or to give way. Every member of the family preserves some aspect of going or yielding.
Scientific Usage
The technical definition of a recession β two consecutive quarters of declining real GDP β was popularized by economist Julius Shiskin in 1974, though the National Bureau of Economic Research uses a more nuanced definition involving depth, diffusion, and duration of economic decline. The popular two-quarter rule is widely cited but not universally accepted among economists.
Recess, the noun, shares the same root and originally meant a withdrawal into seclusion. The school recess and the legislative recess both name periods of stepping back from formal activity β the same idea of temporary retreat that recession carries in its economic application.