Etymologically
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resistance

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /rɪˈzɪs.təns/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English resistence,[2][3] borrowed from Old French resistance, earlier resistence,[2][4] and directly from Medieval Latin resistentia,[2][3][5] from the present participle stem of Latin resistere “to make a stand against, oppose, hold back”,[2][5] the source of resist.[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Moral or political opposition: the mid-14th century in Etymonline;[2] the act of resisting, by persons: 1417 in the OED.[6] Armed opposition by force, and difficulty or trouble, are from the late 14th century.[2]

Semantic evolution

The power or capacity to resist is from 1590 (the 1580s in Etymonline).[6][2] The opposition of one material thing to another is from 1625,[6] and in the physical sciences the opposition of a body or medium to motion from 1656.[6] The electrical sense, opposition to the passage of a current, is from 1760.[2] The line of least resistance is from 1865, also figuratively.[6] In psychoanalysis, unconscious opposition to bringing repressed memories into consciousness is from 1905.[6] Organized covert opposition to an occupying or ruling power, as the Resistance in occupied France, is from 1939.[2][6] Resistance of an organism to disease or a drug is a later sense.[7][8]

Timeline

  • mid-14th century – moral or political opposition.[2]
  • 1417 – the act of resisting.[6]
  • 1590 – the capacity to resist.[6]
  • 1656 – in physics.[6]
  • 1760 – electrical resistance.[2]
  • 1865 – line of least resistance.[6]
  • 1905 – in psychoanalysis.[6]
  • 1939 – an underground movement.[2][6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The act of resisting, or the ability to resist.
  2. A force that opposes or slows motion: air resistance.
  3. (physics) The opposition of a conductor to the flow of electric current, measured in ohms; also a resistor.
  4. The ability of an organism to withstand disease or the effects of a drug.
  5. An underground organization fighting for liberation in an occupied country.

Word family

  • resistant
  • nonresistance
  • piece de resistance
  • resistance thermometer
  • passive resistance
  • resistance training
  • resist
  • resistor
  • assist
  • insist

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins