Recognising

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The process of discerning the identity of a person or thing through prior encounters
2. Identifying someone or something based on previous knowledge or experience
3. Acknowledging the existence or validity of a person, object, or fact by being aware of its characteristics

Etymology: Recognising is the present participle and gerund of "recognise", so its story is really the story of the verb behind it. That verb comes from Latin "recognoscere", built from "re-" (again) and "cognoscere" (to know, to get to know), so the core idea is knowing something again. The Latin verb meant to examine closely or to review, and that sense of checking and scrutinising lies behind many of its later uses. The English sense of identifying someone or something one has met before, from memory, is the one that gives the word its everyday meaning. A dog that recognises its owner's footsteps, or a friend recognised across a crowded room, is doing exactly what the Latin prefix promised: knowing again. The same Latin root produced "cognition" and "cognizance", so recognising sits in a family of words all built on the idea of getting to know something. The "re-" prefix is what turned plain knowledge into knowing once more.

Synonyms: acknowledging, identifying, noticing, distinguishing, perceiving

Antonyms: ignoring, overlooking, disregarding, mistaking, confusing