resort

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /rɪˈzɔːt/, US /rɪˈzɔːrt/^[1]

Etymology

The noun is borrowed from Old French resort (“resource, help, remedy”),^[2][3][4] from resortir (“to resort”), literally “to go out again”,^[2][3] from re- (“again”) and sortir (“to go out”) (see sortie),^[2][3] whose origin is unknown.^[4] The verb was borrowed from Middle French resortir about 1400.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Something one turns to for help or to reach an end: about 1374 in the OED, about 1385 in Barnhart, in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

The verb first meant to come out again and to return or revert (about 1400);^[6][3] to turn to someone for help is from about 1410, and to go somewhere often from 1432.^[3] The noun likewise came to mean a coming or going to a place or person, before 1420,^[3] which led to a place people go to, especially for recreation, recorded by 1754 in Etymonline and Barnhart,^[2][3] while Word Origins dates it to the mid 16th century.^[2][3][7] In the last resort (1670s, 1672 in the OED) translates French en dernier ressort, said of a court from which there is no appeal.^[2][6]

Timeline

• c. 1374 – a source of help.^[6]
• c. 1400 – the verb, to come out again, to return.^[6][3]
• 1432 – to go somewhere often.^[3]
• 1672 – in the last resort.^[6]
• 1754 – a place visited for recreation.^[2][3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A place people visit for holidays, rest or recreation: a ski resort.
2. The act of turning to something for help; something turned to: a last resort.
3. A habitual going to a place.

Verb

1. (resort to) To turn to something for help or as a means, often reluctantly: to resort to violence.
2. (formal) To go often or habitually to a place.

Word family

• resorter

Related words

• sortie
• sort

Usage notes

The AHD groups resort with apply, go, refer and turn as verbs for falling back on someone or something in need; resort especially suggests a last, often unwelcome means.^[8]

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin