resile

Etymology

It is partly borrowed from Middle French resiler (“to draw back from an undertaking or contract”), also résilir,^[2][3][4][5] and partly borrowed from Latin resiliō (“to jump back, rebound, recoil”),^[2][4][6][7] which in post-classical Latin also meant to go back on or repudiate, frequently in British sources from the 12th century.^[2][5] The Latin verb is formed from re- (“back”) and saliō (“to jump, leap”),^[2][8][6] whose vowel changed in the compound,^[3] and the American Heritage Dictionary refers it to Proto-Indo-European *sel-.^[8] The French verb survives, with a change of conjugation, as French résilier (“to annul, cancel”).^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To draw back or withdraw from an undertaking or declaration: 1529, in the State Papers of Henry VIII.^[2][5] Etymonline likewise has the 1520s,^[4] and Dictionary.com 1520–30.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word began with people who withdrew from their commitments.^[2] Without any following phrase it could mean to recant or renege, from before 1597, in Montgomerie's Cherrie and Slae.^[2] Wright's dialect dictionary quotes Scott's Waverley (1814) on a minute to stop parties "frae resiling" and Crockett on a man who "resiled from all his promises".^[10] The physical sense follows the Latin, which the OED notes has no parallel in French:^[2] a body recoiling after a blow, from 1641, in Urquhart, and an elastic thing returning to its shape after being stretched or compressed, from 1712.^[2] Etymonline dates the springing back of material things to 1708.^[4] Barclay in 1678 used it of shrinking from something with aversion, a sense that lasted until 1892.^[2] The elastic use is now rare,^[2] and the Concise Oxford labels the word formal, for abandoning a position.^[11]

Timeline

• 1529 – to draw back from an undertaking, declaration or course of action.^[2][5]
• before 1597 – to draw back, recant, renege, without a following phrase.^[2]
• 1641 – of an object, to recoil or rebound after contact (obsolete by 1805).^[2]
• 1678 – to shrink from something with aversion (obsolete by 1892).^[2]
• 1712 – of an elastic thing, to return to its original position or extent.^[2] Etymonline has 1708.^[4]
• 1887 – to turn back from a point reached (rare).^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To withdraw from an agreement, position or course of action, usually with from: The minister would not resile from her earlier statement.^{[11][5][2][7]}
2. To draw back or recoil.^[8][5][12]
3. Of an elastic thing, to spring back to its former position or shape after being stretched or compressed.^{[8][5][2][12]}
4. (obsolete, 1641–1805) To rebound after contact with something.^[2][7]
5. (obsolete, 1678–1892) To shrink from something with aversion.^[2][7]

Word family

• resilement

Related words

• resiliency
• resilient
• resilience
• result
• salient

Usage notes

Wright's dialect dictionary labels the word Scots, with a further Ayrshire sense, to beguile or deceive, and the OED gives a separate Scottish pronunciation, /rᵻˈsʌil/ or /rᵻˈzʌil/.^[10][2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
11. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins