recension
A census, an enumeration, a review, a survey.
The recenſion of the inhabitants is conſidered, firſt, 'with reſpect to the general population, and to the local diſtribution of them into counties, towns, boroughs, villages, and pariſhes.' Among the conveniences expected from ſuch an annual recenſion, it is obſerved, that 'one might ſee what counties, towns, or pariſhes, diſpeopled faſteſt, or made a contrary progreſs.[…]'
A critical revision of a text.
Of Theon of Alexandria, there remain a recension of Euclid's Elements, Scholia on Aratus, and a Commentary on the Syntaxis of Ptolemy.
A text established by critical revision.
The Śatapatha-Bráhmaṇa has been commented in the Mádhyaṃdina recension by Harisvámin and Sáyaṇa; but their commentaries are so far extant only in a fragmentary form. The Vṛihad-Áraṇyaka has been explained by Dviveda Gan̄ga (of Gujarát); and in the Káṇva recension by Śaṃkara, to whose commentary a number of other works by his pupils, &c., attach themselves.
Where it comes from
From Latin recēnsiō (“enumeration; review; reassessment”), from recēnseō (“to count, reckon; to examine, review; to go over, revise”), from re- (“again”) (from Proto-Italic *wre- (“again”); further etymology uncertain) + cēnseō (“to give an opinion; to suppose, think; to assess”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱn̥seh₁-, *ḱn̥seye- (“to announce”)).
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry recension (CC BY-SA 4.0).