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Recidivist

//ɹɪˈsɪdɪvɪst// adj, noun

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Tending to fall back into prior habits, especially criminal habits.

    "To return to Macbeth, I should like to note another psychological intuition of [William] Shakespeare’s, which is that women commit fewer crimes than men; but when they commit them they are more cruel and more obstinately recidivist than men. Lady Macbeth, for example, is more inhumanly ferocious than her husband."

Noun
  1. 1
    One who falls back into prior habits, especially criminal habits.

    "This specimen was of English parentage, was a professional burglar, a confirmed recidivist, and—since he habitually carried firearms—a potential homicide."

  2. 2
    someone who lapses into previous undesirable patterns of behavior wordnet
  3. 3
    someone who is repeatedly arrested for criminal behavior (especially for the same criminal behavior) wordnet

Etymology

Etymology 1

From French récidiviste, from Latin recidīvus (“returning, recurring”). Compare recidivous, -ist. By surface analysis, recidive + -ist.

Etymology 2

From French récidiviste, from Latin recidīvus (“returning, recurring”). Compare recidivous, -ist. By surface analysis, recidive + -ist.

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