record
Please record record sales.
The sentence instructs someone to document the highest-ever sales figures.
Meanings
to set down in writing or on a recording medium for future reference
- She recorded the meeting on her phone.
- Historians record the events of their times.
as noun: a piece of evidence or information; an audio recording; or, the best-ever achievement. As adjective: highest-ever or unprecedented
- She set a world record in the marathon.
- Record sales were posted last quarter.
Word origin
From Latin recordārī ('to remember, recall'), formed from re- ('again') + cor ('heart') — the original sense being 'to bring back to the heart,' i.e., to memorize or recall. The same Latin cor is the root of 'cordial', 'core', 'courage', and 'concord'. The verb-noun stress alternation follows the trochaic noun rule.
Fun fact
Latin cor ('heart') is hidden inside 'record' — to record literally meant 'to bring back to the heart,' i.e., to remember. Medieval scholars believed memory was located in the heart, not the brain. So when we make a recording today, we're carrying out an action whose Latin etymology preserves a 1,500-year-old theory of where memories live.