A mate recently asked me about the difference between ‘recurrence’ and ‘reoccurrence’. He firmly believed that ‘reoccurrence’ was ugly (I tend to agree) and that recurrence should be used instead.
Although my initial thought was that he was right. I was ready to get on my soapbox and demand that ugly words like ‘reoccurrence’ (and to a lesser extent ‘bewigged’) be defenestrated. However, I dug a little deeper and found a subtle difference.
Both appear in the Oxford English with essentially the same definition. The only difference being that recur mentions the word ‘periodic’.
Recur – verb (recurs, recurring, recurred)
occur again periodically or repeatedly:
“when the symptoms recurred, the doctor diagnosed something different.”
Reoccur – verb (reoccurs, reoccurring, reoccurred)
occur again or repeatedly:
“ulcers tend to reoccur after treatment has stopped.”
The difference is subtle, but with the definition of ‘recur’ (the inclusion of periodically) you can infer that a recurrence happens more than once, whereas a ‘reoccurrence’ might only be a once off repeat.
Although it seems to me that they can be used pretty much interchangeably (noting the subtle difference) there is a perception that reoccur is incorrect and ugly, and so might be avoided in formal documentation.
That’s how I see it anyway.
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