résurgent

Forms

résurgent (feminine résurgente, masculine plural résurgents, feminine plural résurgentes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin resurgēns (“rising again”), the present participle of resurgō (“to rise again, recover one's strength”), which in the Church Latin of the early 4th century meant “to rise from the dead”.^[2][3] The verb is formed re- and surgō (“to rise”), the source of surgir.^[2] Its popular outcome was the Old French verb ressoudre, whence ressource.^[2][4]

The word was first borrowed in the early 16th century with the religious sense “risen from the dead”, and taken up again, under the influence of résurgence, as a term of geography.^[5][3] The TLFi dates this second use to 1923; the Grand Robert and the Petit Robert, after Dauzat, place it at the end of the 19th century.^[2][1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In 1525 Pierre Gringore's Menus propos uses resurgent to mean “risen from the dead”, of Christ.^[2][5][3]

Semantic evolution

The religious sense went out of use, as ressuscité prevailed over it.^[5] The word was revived in the 20th century, in the wake of résurgence, for waters that come back to the surface after an underground course (1923), and soon after figuratively for something that comes back to life or happens again (1925, Léon Daudet).^[2][5]

English has had resurgent as a noun since 1768–74 and as an adjective since 1808.^[2]

Timeline

• 1525 – Resurgent “risen from the dead” in Pierre Gringore's Menus propos.^[2][5]
• 1923 – The Larousse universel uses it of underground waters that reappear at the surface.^[2][3]
• 1925 – Léon Daudet uses it in the figurative sense “reviving”.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (geography) Of water: coming back to the surface after an underground course: des eaux résurgentes.^[2][6][7]
2. (figurative, literary) Coming back to life, reviving.^[2][4]

Related words

• résurgence
• ressource
• surgir
• Latin resurgō

References

1. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)