uprising

Etymology

It is formed from English up- + rising,^[2][3][4][5] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged takes the Middle English noun as modelled on the phrase risen up.^[6] Rising is the verbal noun of rise.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rising from death, resurrection: about 1250, in a text of the Creed.^[2][7] Etymonline places "rising from bed" first, in the early 13th century, and resurrection in the middle of that century,^[4] while the OED has the bed sense from before 1300, in King Horn.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Middle English used the word for almost any physical act of getting up: from the grave, from bed, after a fall, or of the sun.^[2][4] From about 1430, in Lydgate, it also meant advancement in rank or power.^[2][3] A more specialized use, for a woman's rising after childbirth, ran from 1611 to 1693.^[2] The political sense, a popular rising against authority, appears only in 1587, in Holinshed's Chronicles, and is now the main meaning.^[2][4][6] In the same year it was also used for something's coming into existence or notice.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – resurrection, rising from death.^[2][4]
• before 1300 – rising from bed; adjective, that rises up.^[2]
• c. 1330 – rising after a fall; the rising of the sun.^[2]
• c. 1430 – advancement in place or power.^[2][3]
• 1521 – rising from a sitting or kneeling position.^[2]
• 1587 – an insurrection; also, coming into existence or notice.^[2][4]
• 1598 – a rise or ascent, a swelling.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A revolt or insurrection against authority: The army put down the peasant uprising within weeks.^[8][6][2][3]
2. An act of rising up, as from bed or from a seat.^[6][2]
3. (archaic) An ascent or slope.^[8][3]
4. (rare) Resurrection.^[2][3]
5. Improvement in position or circumstances.^[2][3]

Adjective

1. That rises up.^[2]

Related words

• rise
• rising
• up
• uprise

Usage notes

The stress can differ by sense.^[3][2] The Shorter Oxford stresses the second syllable except in the sense "insurrection", which has first-syllable stress.^[3] The OED marks first-syllable stress for that sense and second-syllable stress for the adjective.^[2] Collins gives both stress patterns for the noun.^[8]

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins