resurgent

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin resurgēns (“rising again”),^[2][3][4][5] the present participle of resurgō (“to rise again, revive”),^[2][3][6] from re- (“again”) and surgō (“to rise”),^[7][8] the source of surge.^[9][7] Barnhart, who dates the adjective only from 1808, takes it instead as probably formed in English from the verb resurge with -ent.^[9] That verb, recorded from the 1570s, is a separate borrowing of the Latin verb, and it became obsolete in the 19th century except in poetry.^[7][9] The geomorphological sense probably follows French résurgent, recorded in 1923.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rising or tending to rise again: 1746, in The Baffled Hero.^[2][3] Later dates in other dictionaries are 1760–70 for the word,^[6] 1804 in Etymonline, of the revival of animals in a translation of Spallanzani,^[7] and 1808 in Barnhart.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In post-classical Latin the verb had also come to mean rising from the dead, in the Vetus Latina,^[2] and the English noun began in that way, as a person risen again, especially after death, in Abraham Tucker's Freewill (1763).^[2] The adjective moved from literal rising to anything reviving after a period of decline or inactivity, and that is now its main sense;^[2][10][3] the derivative resurgence is found before 1834, in Coleridge.^[9] In modern use the noun frequently means a rebel, on the pattern of insurgent.^[2] The sciences took the word up in the 20th century: for gas or vapour released from magma in 1908, for a stream emerging from underground in 1947, and for a kind of volcanic caldera with an uplifted floor in 1962.^[2]

Timeline

• 1746 – adjective, rising or tending to rise again; reviving.^[2][3]
• 1763 – noun, a person who has risen again, especially after death.^[2]
• 1908 – in geology, of gas or vapour released from magma after being absorbed from groundwater.^[2]
• 1947 – of a stream or spring, emerging at the surface after flowing underground.^[2]
• 1962 – of a large volcanic caldera with an uplifted dome in its floor.^[2]
• 1965 – noun, a resurgent stream (rare).^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Rising again; gaining new strength, popularity or activity after a period of decline: a resurgent opposition party.^[10][3][2]
2. (geology) Of gas, vapour or water: absorbed by magma from groundwater and later released.^[2][5]
3. (geomorphology) Of a stream or spring: coming to the surface after flowing underground.^[2]
4. (geology) Of a large caldera: having a dome pushed up in its floor by magma below.^[2]

Noun

1. A person or thing that rises again or undergoes a resurgence.^[3][2][5]
2. A rebel; an insurgent.^[2]

Word family

• resurgence

Related words

• surge
• resurge
• resurrection
• insurgent

References

1. ^ a b 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins