Conversate

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:37 AM -0500 1/25/01, Bob Fitzke wrote:
>Seems to me that Skakespeare used it in Julius Caesar.
>
>Bob
>
Yes, you and dInIs are right:

ANTONY

        Moreover, he hath left you all his walks,
        His private arbours and new-planted orchards,
        On this side Tiber; he hath left them you,
        And to your heirs for ever, common pleasures,
        To walk abroad, and recreate yourselves.
        Here was a Caesar! when comes such another?

Julius Caesar III.ii


In fact, the OED makes it clear that "recreate" in the sense of
'refresh' or 'enliven' (as opposed to the more specialized and now
much more American 'take recreation', the OED's sense 5) has a much
longer history than that.  Contrary to what I was claiming for the
'take recreation' sense, it's much less clear that the 'refresh,
renew' sense of "recreate" is a back-formation from "recreation".
(All of this applies to the [rEkriyeyt] item, not the essentially
unrelated transparent re-create/re-creation near-homograph.)

larry