receive Look up receive at Dictionary.com
c.1300, from O.N.Fr. receivre (O.Fr. recoivre), from L. recipere "regain, take back," from re- "back" + -cipere, comb. form of capere "to take" (see capable). Radio and television sense is attested from 1908. Receiver as a telephone apparatus is from 1877; in ref. to a radio unit it is recorded from 1891; in U.S. football sense it dates from 1897.