recidivist
/ɹɪˈsɪdɪvɪst/ noun, adjective
Forms recidivists
- noun One who falls back into prior habits, especially criminal habits.
- adjective Tending to fall back into prior habits, especially criminal habits.
Synonyms
repeat offender recidive recidivous repeater habitual criminal backslider reversionist
Etymology
From French récidiviste, from Latin recidīvus (“returning, recurring”). Compare recidivous, -ist. By surface analysis, recidive + -ist.
Webster’s 1913
- noun One who is recidivous or is characterized by recidivism; an incorrigible criminal. -- Re*cid`i*vis"tic (#), a.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “recidivist”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details