Recurse

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ɹɪˈkɜː(ɹ)s/

Definitions

1. To call or invoke oneself repeatedly, often with modified parameters, until reaching a base condition that stops the repetition
2. To engage in a self-referential process where a function repeatedly calls itself with varying inputs until a stopping criterion is met
3. To operate in a manner where a procedure invokes itself multiple times with altered arguments until a specified end condition is achieved

Etymology: "Recurse" is a back-formation from "recursion," meaning it was created by stripping the ending off an existing noun and treating the remainder as a new verb. "Recursion" itself comes from the Latin "recursio," a running back or return, built from "recurrere," to run back, where "re-" means back and "currere" means to run. The noun carried the general sense of returning or coming back for centuries before mathematicians and logicians gave it its technical meaning of a procedure that refers to itself. The verb followed that technical sense. Once "recursion" was established as the name for a self-referring process, speakers needed a verb to describe what a function or program does when it performs that process, and "recurse" filled the gap. Its meaning therefore sits entirely in the computing and mathematics vocabulary, where a routine calls itself with changed inputs until a stopping case is reached.

Synonyms: iterate, loop, recur, repeat, replay

Antonyms: terminate, stop, end