resultant

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin resultāns, the present participle of resultō,^[2][3][4][5] which Etymonline and Merriam-Webster call Medieval Latin.^[6][7] In English it was first a noun; the adjective may also have been formed in English from result and -ant.^[8][6] The noun sense "resulting force" may owe something to French résultante, recorded in physics in 1652.^[2][7] Resultō, "to spring back, rebound", is a frequentative of resiliō (“to rebound”), from re- and saliō (“to leap”).^[9][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a noun in arithmetic, the result of an addition, the sum: about 1450, in The Art of Nombryng.^[2][3][6] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1400–50.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The arithmetical noun is recorded only in late Middle English.^[3][2] The adjective first kept the Latin sense of rebounding: from 1615 to 1660 it meant shining by reflection.^[2][3] The usual sense, resulting or consequent, is recorded from 1639.^[2][7][8] The noun returned in 1692 meaning an outcome or product.^[2][7] In mechanics a resultant is the single force equivalent to two or more forces acting at one point: the OED dates this to 1806,^[2] Etymonline to 1815,^[6] and the adjective used of such a force to 1825.^[2] In algebra it named, from 1842, a function showing whether equations share a root,^[2] and in chemistry, from 1845, a product of a reaction, contrasted with a reactant.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – noun, the sum of an addition (obsolete).^[2][3]
• 1615 – adjective, shining by reflection (obsolete by 1660).^[2]
• 1639 – adjective, resulting, consequent.^[2][7][8]
• 1692 – noun, an outcome or product.^[2][7]
• 1806 – noun, the vector sum of forces.^[2] Etymonline dates the sense in mechanics to 1815.^[6]
• 1825 – adjective, of a force: being a resultant.^[2]
• 1842 – noun, in algebra, a function of the coefficients of equations.^[2]
• 1845 – noun, in chemistry, a product of a reaction.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Following as a consequence; resulting: the drought and the resultant food shortages.^[11][7][2]
2. Of a force or other vector: being the sum of two or more others.^[7][2]
3. (obsolete, 1615–1660) Shining by reflection.^[2][3]

Noun

1. (mathematics, physics) A single vector equal to the sum of two or more vectors, such as the force equivalent to several forces acting at one point.^[11][7][2]
2. Something that results; an outcome.^[7][2]
3. (chemistry) A substance formed in a chemical reaction.^[2]
4. (obsolete) The sum of an addition.^[2][3]

Word family

• resultantly

Related words

• result
• resilient
• salient

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 r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins