recapitulation
nounUK /ˌɹiːkəˌpɪtjʊˈleɪʃ(ə)n/ · US /ɹiː.kəˌpɪ.t͡ʃəˈleɪ.ʃ(ə)n/
Etymology From Anglo-Norman recapitulaciun et al., Middle French recapitulacion et al., or their source, from Late Latin recapitulatio (“summing up, summary”), from the participle stem of recapitulare (“recapitulate”), from re- + capitulum (“chapter, section”), diminutive of caput (“head”).
A subsequent brief recitement or enumeration of the major points in a narrative, article, or book.
- The dolorous effects of the second world war on train services, and its protracted legacies of over-age equipment and shortages of material for replacement, are too fresh in memory to require recapitulation here; […].1957 July 23, D. S. M. Barrie, “Sixty Years of British Express Trains”, in Railway Magazine, pages 455-456:
Entertainment, Lifestyle, Music The third major section of a musical movement written in sonata form, representing thematic material that originally appeared in the exposition section.
- In classical music there are, as the analytical programs tell us, first subjects and second subjects, free fantasias, recapitulations, and codas; there are fugues, with counter-subjects, strettos, and pedal points; there are passacaglias on ground basses, canons ad hypodiapente, and other ingenuities, which have, after all, stood or fallen by their prettiness as much as the simplest folk-tune.1902 [1898], [George] Bernard Shaw, The Perfect Wagnerite […] , second edition, London: Grant Richards, page 3:
Biology, Natural sciences The reenactment of the embryonic development in evolution of the species.
Lifestyle, Religion, Theology The symmetry provided by Christ's life to the teachings of the Old Testament; the summation of human experience in Jesus Christ.
- one would expect God's final purpose to be expressed in his created world, since the doctrine of recapitulation showed that this is where his plans had worked out before.2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 144:
- Derived terms
- recap, recapitulationism, recapitulationist, recapitulation theory
- Related terms
- recapitulate