resilient

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin resiliēns (“leaping or springing back”),^[2][3][4][5] the present participle of resiliō (“to jump back, rebound, recoil”),^[6][7][2] formed from re- (“back”) and saliō (“to jump, leap”).^[7][8][4] Barnhart takes it as formed in English, on the Latin model, as an adjective to the earlier noun resilience, recorded in 1626 in Bacon's “Sylva Sylvarum”.^[8] The Latin verb is the source of resile, and saliō of salient and sally;^[2][9][8] result comes from the related resultō (“to spring back”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rebounding, recoiling, returning to the original position: 1644, in John Bulwer's Chirologia.^[2][8][7]

Semantic evolution

From 1674 the word described materials that take back their shape after being bent, compressed or stretched,^[2][6] and since 1830, in Fraser's Magazine, people and minds that recover quickly from misfortune, shock or illness.^[2][6] Cresswell dates this sense, now the main one, to the mid 19th century.^[10] Johnson (1755) knew only the literal sense, "starting or springing back".^[11] A figurative use "casting a backward glance" (1848–80) did not last,^[2][12] and the older literal sense of springing back is last recorded in 1860.^[2] In watchmaking a resilient escapement (1859) has parts flexible enough to yield under a shock.^[2]

Timeline

• 1626 – the noun resilience, in Bacon.^[8]
• 1644 – rebounding, returning to the original position.^[2][8]
• 1674 – of materials, resuming their shape after compression.^[2][6]
• 1830 – of people, recovering quickly from hardship.^[2][6]
• 1848 – looking back (obsolete by 1880).^[2]
• 1852 – noun, a resilient person or thing.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Able to recover quickly from hardship, shock, illness or change: The town's economy proved resilient after the mill closed.^[13][7][2]
2. Of a material or object, able to return to its original shape after being bent, stretched or compressed; elastic.^[13][7][2]
3. (obsolete, 1644–1860) Springing back; recoiling.^[2][12][11]

Word family

• resiliently
• nonresilient
• unresilient
• resilience

Related words

• resile
• result
• salient
• sally

References

1. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins