resurrect

Etymology

It is a back-formation from resurrection,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} on the model of verbs such as connect and protect.^[2] The OED instead derives it from Latin resurrēct-, the past participial stem of resurgō (“to rise again”), after the noun.^[9] The noun is Middle English resureccioun, from Anglo-Norman resurrectiun and Ecclesiastical Latin resurrēctiō (“a rising again from the dead”), a noun of action from the same verb, which is formed from re- (“again”) and surgō (“to rise”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To raise someone from the dead or restore them to life: 1773, in the Annual Register for 1772,^[9][4] which Etymonline gives as 1772.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Purists disliked the verb, and the Century Dictionary (1895) labelled it colloquial.^[2] Klein held that the correct form would be resurge, but noted that it is only intransitive, while resurrect can be both.^[8][2] The intransitive sense, to rise again from the dead, followed in 1805, and the figurative sense, to revive something fallen into disuse or forgotten, in 1823.^[9] In the 19th century the verb was also used, often facetiously, of exhuming corpses to sell them, as the resurrectionists did;^[10][4][5] geologists use it of a buried land surface brought back to the surface by erosion.^[4] A noun resurrect, a person risen from the dead, is recorded once, in 1892.^[9]

Timeline

• 1773 – to raise from the dead.^[9][4] Etymonline dates it to 1772.^[2]
• 1805 – intransitive, to rise from the dead.^[9]
• 1823 – to revive something disused or forgotten.^[9]
• 1892 – noun, one risen from the dead (obsolete).^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To raise from the dead; to bring back to life.^[4][10][9]
2. To bring back into use, notice or activity; to revive: The studio plans to resurrect the old series.^[10][4][9]
3. To rise again from the dead.^[4][10][9]
4. (geology) To expose again by erosion a land surface once buried under sediments.^[4]
5. (historical, facetious) To dig up and steal a body from its grave, as the body snatchers did.^[10][4][5]

Word family

• resurrector

Related words

• resurrection
• resurgent
• resurge
• surge
• insurrection
• source

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
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. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins