Other forms: recoveries
Recovery is the period of getting healthy again after an illness or injury. A slow recovery, make a full recovery, the recovery ward.
It also names the return of something lost: the recovery of the stolen paintings, data recovery. In economics, a recovery is a return to growth after a downturn. In addiction, recovery is the whole ongoing process of staying well, and in recovery is how people describe themselves. Note recovery position, the way an unconscious person is laid on their side, which is taught in every first aid course.
1nounrecoveryThe period of getting healthy again after illness.
“Rest and good food will help your recovery after the flu.”
2nounlostThe getting back of something lost.
“The recovery of the paintings took eleven years.”
3nounreturnA return to growth after a downturn.
“The recovery was uneven and mostly in one city.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
recovery is a getting back.
Old French recovree comes from Latin recuperare, to get back — the same verb that gives recuperate. English took the word twice, and recover and recuperate now divide the work between getting things back and getting well.
Proto-Indo-European
*keh₂p-
Old French
recovree
Middle English
recoveree
English, today
recovery
Built from
From recover + -y, from Middle English recoveree, from Old French recovree, from recovrer (“recover”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA