different between recognize vs approve

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???k??na?z/, (sometimes proscribed) /???k?na?z/

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Old French reconoistre, from Latin recognoscere, first attested in the 16th century. Displaced native English acknow (“to recognize, perceive as”), compare German erkennen and Swedish erkänna.

Alternative forms

• recognise (non-Oxford British spelling)

Verb

recognize (third-person singular simple present recognizes, present participle recognizing, simple past and past participle recognized) (North American and Oxford British spelling)

1. (transitive) To match (something or someone which one currently perceives) to a memory of some previous encounter with the same person or thing.
   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Chapter I,

     He looked in vain into the stalls for the butcher who had sold fresh meat twice a week, on market days, and he felt a genuine thrill of pleasure when he recognized the red bandana turban of old Aunt Lyddy, the ancient negro woman who had sold him gingerbread and fried fish, and told him weird tales of witchcraft and conjuration, in the old days when, as an idle boy, he had loafed about the market-house.

2. (transitive) To acknowledge the existence or legality of; to treat as valid or worthy of consideration.

3. (transitive, or with clause) To acknowledge or consider (as being a certain thing or having a certain quality or property).

4. (transitive) To realize or discover the nature of something; apprehend quality in.
5. (transitive) To show formal appreciation of, as with an award, commendation etc.

6. (obsolete) To review; to examine again.
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of South to this entry?)
7. (obsolete) To reconnoiter.
   • 1637, Robert Monro, Monro, His Expedition With the Worthy Scots Regiment Called Mac-Keys

     before the siege was layd to the Towne, of minde to recognize, he fell unawares amongst an Ambushcade

8. (immunology) To have the property to bind to specific antigens.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From re- +? cognize.

Alternative forms

• re-cognize

Verb

recognize (third-person singular simple present recognizes, present participle recognizing, simple past and past participle recognized) (North American and Oxford British spelling)

1. to cognize again

English

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??p?u?v/
• Rhymes: -u?v

Etymology 1

From Middle English aproven, appreoven, appreven, apreven, borrowed from Old French aprover, approver, approuvir, appreuver (“to approve”), from Latin approb?, from ad + prob? (“to esteem as good, approve, prove”). Compare prove, approbate.

Verb

approve (third-person singular simple present approves, present participle approving, simple past and past participle approved)

1. (transitive) To officially sanction; to ratify; to confirm; to set as satisfactory.

2. (transitive) To regard as good or suitable; to commend; to be pleased with; to think well of.

3. (transitive, archaic) To make proof of; to demonstrate; to prove or show practically.
   • 1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession Of James II

     He had approved himself a great warrior.

   • 1844, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: Second Series

     Opportunities to approve […] worth.

   • 1812-1818, Lord Byron, Child Harolde's Piligrimage

     'T is an old lesson; Time approves it true.

   • 1764, Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, III:

     He had long burned with impatience to approve his valour.

4. (intransitive, followed by "of") To consider worthy (to); to be pleased (with); to accept.
   • 2016, Mitski, Your Best American Girl

     Your mother wouldn't approve of how my mother raised me. But I do, I think I do. And you're an all-American boy

   • 1995, The Verve, A Northern Soul

     Dad didn't approve of me, do you? I'm alive with something inside of me.

   • 1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession Of James II

     They had not approved of the deposition of James.

   • 1758, Jonathan Swift, The History of the Four Last Years of the Queen

     Their address was in the most dutiful manner, approving of what her majesty had done toward a peace, and dissolve her parliament

5. (archaic, transitive, usually with a reflexive pronoun) To show to be worthy; to demonstrate the merits of.
   • a. 1729, John Rogers, The Duty and Advantageous of Trust in God

     The first care and concern must be to approve himself to God.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English approuen, approven, from Old French aprouer; a- + a form apparently derived from the pro, prod, in Latin pr?sum (“be useful or profitable”). Compare with improve.

Verb

approve (third-person singular simple present approves, present participle approving, simple past and past participle approved)

1. (transitive, law, English law) To make profit of; to convert to one's own profit — said especially of waste or common land appropriated by the lord of the manor.

References

• approve in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.