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In 29a, shouldn't "Spanish" be "Italian"?

a stinker of a puzzle, and although I have all the clued lights I'm stumped on two pairs of synonyms:
12a/36a: re?r?a?/?o?n?er and 3d/30d: ?o?ate/rec?i?

I just can't make sense of the words that fit these patterns,

12 Retreat Counter
3 Rotate Recoil

The preamble does not mention synonyms.
The pairs are just in symmetry and all have a connection with 'back'

Jazzgirl, thanks for that. I wondered about the synonyms, pairs stuff but I didn't have the puzzle to hand - and couldn't remember the exact wording in the preamble.

Malone, let's hope davipde sees our posts and is happy with them 🤔

Thanks very much.
I did have these words but didn't recognise them as synonyms. Quite a lot of obscure definitions in this puzzle.

Thanks for coming back to us, davipde.
Yes, it was of the trickier puzzles, but enjoyable.

I didn't have any problem linking the words via back/backing or turn - all close enough for the common theme and common treatment, I think. For me, just a symmetrical arrangement of unlinked words is harder to justify.

Tomorrow's offering, Klazomaniac? You'll have to wait a bit longer!