Recant

verb

To publicly declare that one no longer supports a previously held belief or statement.

Usage

Have you ever had to take back something you've very vocally supported in the past? We all hold myriad of opinions or beliefs that make up an important part of our identity, but with so many central ideas, some of them are bound to change. And when a new perspective is a major shift from one you vociferously held before, we often feel the need to make our new stance known, almost (or sometimes literally) as a sort of apology for what we now see as misguided. To make an admission like this is to recant what you said before.

To recant is to outwardly state that one's beliefs or opinions are now different from what they were before. The key to the word's meaning is that this announcement is public: if you take a new position on an issue but don't tell anyone, you have not recanted, but only changed your mind. Though it is possible to recant in response to any change in one's opinions, it is common for one to be forced to do so. This is especially true of public figures who are beholden to a form of public trust, and whose careers are dependent on maintaining the support of followers or constituents. Thus, recanting is a practice often seen among politicians and religious leaders, and they often do so to concede that they have breached the rigid belief structures common to both these fields.

It is also common to see the word recant used in conjunction with those responsible for disseminating truth, such as journalists. To issue a correction in a piece of print or online media is to recant for an inaccuracy in the reporting. Due to a similar emphasis on truth and factual accuracy, recant is also often utilized in the field of criminal justice to note that one has withdrawn or rescinded a sworn statement or testimony. For instance, a reluctant witness may recant their account of a crime, opting instead to remain silent. Pointing out the flaws of a research experiment, such as is done in academic journals, can prompt a scientist to recant the conclusion of the study. In all of these cases, though, these individuals publicly recant their earlier statements due to the strong sense of responsibility to correct the public record so that the points they support and the points that observers perceive them to support are as closely aligned as possible.

Example: After she changed her tax policy for the fourth time during her campaign, the candidate's supporters were tired of hearing her recant her previously held positions.

Example: After finally seeing the movie at his friend's insistence, he liked it so much that he had to recant for all the times he'd made fun of it.

Origin

Entering the English lexicon in the early 1500s, recant stems from the Latin word recantare, which means “to revoke.” This, in turn, breaks down into the prefix re-, meaning “again,” and cantare, meaning “to sing or chant,” to literally translate to “to re-sing.”

Derivative Words

Recantation: This noun is used to mean either the actual statement by which a person recants, or the act of a person explicitly stating their new point of view on a subject.

Example: The recantation published in the scientific journal completely upended the field's existing theory.

Example: The politician's recantation, though sincere, was reported by all the major media as another case of flip-flopping.

Recanted: This past tense of recant describes when someone retracted their earlier point in the past.

Example: She had recanted her preference for cats on account of their aloofness, only owning dogs ever since.

Recanter: A recanter is a person who publicly asserts a new belief on a topic.

In Literature

From Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible:

Shoes would interfere with her conversation, for she constantly addresses the ground under her feet. Asking forgiveness. Owning, disowning, recanting, recharting a hateful course of events to make sense of her complicity. We all are, I suppose. Trying to invent our version of the story. All human odes are essentially one, "My life; what I stole from history, and how I live with it.”

The narrator’s mother has developed her own odd but intimately personal ritual for coping with and accepting the life she has lived, addressing the ground as though it is where the archive of her personal history resides. In coming to terms with her past, the old woman variously concedes, denies, and even rescinds, or recants, the decisions she has made and the beliefs she has held.

Mnemonic

Once you recant, you can't go back to your old belief.