Recessed

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Set deeper into a surface than the surrounding area, resulting in a sunken or discrete space
2. Placed inward from the main surface, creating a lowered or indented area
3. Situated beneath the usual plane, forming a hollow or sunken region

Etymology: Before it described a hollow set back into a wall, "recess" meant little more than a departure. It comes from Latin "recessus," the act of going back or withdrawing, built from "recedere," "to go back," which joins the prefix "re-" (back) to "cedere," "to go." The Latin noun also covered a secluded corner or nook, and that sense of a quiet, withdrawn place is what carried it toward architecture: a space set back from the line of the surrounding surface. The word reached English through French, where "recès" could mean a hiding place or hollow, a pause or break, and even the ebbing of the tide. The academic sense of a school break grew from that idea of a pause, and the sense of an assembly's closing decree probably owes something to Italian "recesso." Each sense keeps the same core notion of withdrawing from the main line. "Recessed" is the past participle of the verb "recess," and it describes something set back or sunk below the usual plane, such as a recessed light or a recessed doorway.

Synonyms: set back, indented

Antonyms: projecting