resolve

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɹɪˈzɒlv/, /ɹiːˈzɒlv/ (UK); /ɹɪˈzɑlv/, /ɹɪˈzɔlv/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English resolven, borrowed from Old French resolver or directly borrowed from Latin resolvere (“to loosen, undo, settle”),^[2][3][4] from re- (“back; intensive”) and solvere (“to loosen, release, explain”) (see solve).^[3][2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To dissolve, break into parts: about 1374–80, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

From separate into components come the sense of reducing something by mental analysis (late 14th century), solving a problem (1577), and then deciding or determining after analysis (1520s); passing a resolution is from the 1580s, and settling a doubtful point or dispute from 1612.^[3][2] In optics, to distinguish the parts of an object, it is from 1785.^[3] The noun, firmness of purpose, is from 1591, in Shakespeare's Henry VI,^[2][6] and a formal decision of a deliberative body from the 1650s, now American.^[3][6]

Timeline

• c. 1374 – to dissolve.^[2][6]
• 1520s – to decide.^[3]
• 1577 – to solve a problem.^[2]
• 1591 – firmness of purpose (noun).^[2]
• 1612 – to settle a doubt.^[2]
• 1785 – in optics.^[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To find a solution to; to settle: resolve a dispute.
2. To decide firmly on a course of action.
3. Of a committee or assembly, to decide by a formal vote.
4. To separate into component parts; to analyse.
5. (music) Of a discord, to pass into a concord.

Noun

1. Firm determination to do something.

Word family

• resolvability
• resolvable
• resolver
• preresolve

Related words

• resolution
• resolute
• solve
• dissolve
• absolve
• solution

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press