resilience

/ɹɪˈzɪl.i.əns/·noun·c. 1626·Established

Origin

Resilience literally means "leaping back" — from Latin resilire, "to spring back, rebound," built from re- (back) + salire (to jump).‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‍‍‍‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‍ It started as a physics term for the elasticity of materials in the 17th century. Psychology and self-help only adopted it in the 1970s-80s. The same Latin root salire (to jump) gave English "salmon" (the leaping fish), "assault" (jumping at), "insult" (jumping on), and "result" (bouncing back).

Definition

The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; the ability of a substance to spring back into sh‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‍‍‍‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‍ape.

Did you know?

Resilience, salmon, assault, insult, result, and somersault all come from the same Latin word salire (to jump). Resilience is jumping-back. Salmon are leapers. An assault is jumping-at. An insult is jumping-on someone. A result bounces back. A somersault is an over-jump. One Latin verb for "jump" produced six common English words with wildly different modern meanings.

Etymology

Latin17th centurywell-attested

From Latin 'resilientem,' the present participle of 'resilīre' (to spring back, to rebound, to bounce back from compression), composed of 're-' (back, again) + 'salīre' (to jump, to leap, to spring), from PIE *sel- (to jump, to spring). Resilience is literally 'jumping back' — the elastic return of a body to its original shape after deformation or pressure. The PIE root *sel- produced 'salient' (prominent, springing forward, from French 'saillant'), 'sally' (a sudden leap or sortie), 'somersault' (from French 'soubresaut,' lit. 'over-jump'), and 'salmon' (the jumping fish, from Latin 'salmo' from 'salīre'). The physical, material sense of resilience — a metal spring, a rubber band, elastic timber — preceded the psychological sense of recovering from adversity. The word entered English in the 17th century in natural philosophy and was extended to ecology by the 1970s and to psychology and business vocabulary in the 1980s, where it remains ubiquitous today. Key roots: re- (Latin: "back"), *sel- (Proto-Indo-European: "to jump, to leap").

Ancient Roots

re- (Latin: “back”)*sel- (Proto-Indo-European: “to jump, to leap”)

This Word in Other Languages

salient(English (from Latin salire, leaping forward — same root))salmon(English (from Latin salmo, the leaping fish — same salire))sally(English (a leap or sortie, from French saillie, Latin salire))somersault(English (from French soubresaut, over-leap — same root))assault(English (from Latin assalire, ad + salire, leap upon))insult(English (from Latin insultare, to leap on — same salire))

Resilience traces back to Latin re-, meaning "back", with related forms in Proto-Indo-European *sel- ("to jump, to leap"). Across languages it shares form or sense with English (from Latin salire, leaping forward — same root) salient, English (from Latin salmo, the leaping fish — same salire) salmon, English (a leap or sortie, from French saillie, Latin salire) sally and English (from French soubresaut, over-leap — same root) somersault among others, evidence of a shared etymological family.

Background

The Etymology of Resilience

Resilience comes from Latin resilire, meaning "to leap back" — re- (back) plus salire (to leap).‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‍‍‍‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‍ When it entered English in the 17th century, it described a purely physical property: the ability of a compressed material to spring back to its original shape. A rubber ball is resilient. A steel spring is resilient. The word had nothing to do with human character. That changed in the 1970s when ecologists borrowed it to describe how ecosystems recover from disruption, and again in the 1980s when psychologists adopted it for bouncing back from adversity. The Latin root salire was remarkably productive: "salmon" are literally "the leapers," "assault" is a jumping-at, "insult" is a jumping-on, and "somersault" is an over-jump.

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