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Monday, May 09, 2005

how appropriate

Today's Word of the Day


resile \rih-ZYLE\ verb

: recoil, retract; especially : to return to a prior position

Example sentence:
The politician said he was sorry that his comments had caused offense, but he stopped short of resiling from his position.


Did you know?

"Resile" is a resilient word; it's been around in English since at least 1529. It's also a cousin of "resilient" — both words derive from the Latin verb "resilire," which means to "jump back" or "recoil." ("Resilire" in turn comes from "salire," meaning "to jump.") "Resilient" focuses on the ability of something to "bounce back" from damage, whereas "resile" generally applies to someone or something that withdraws from an agreement or "jumps back" from a stated position. "Resile" is a word that shows up only occasionally in U.S. sources; it is more common in British and especially Australian English.

8 comments:

Robert McBean. said...

can you do some of the basic conjugations? and maybe some more usage examples.

Anonymous said...

nope. I'm a poli sci major, not a english major.

CFAC Library said...

I resile
You resile
S/he resiles
We resile
They resile

"He would have resiled his intemperate remarks, if he had owned a time machine."

My favourite "Words of the Day" from days past have been:
"Bloviate,"
"McGuffin,"
"Callithump,"
and "Troglodyte."

CFAC Library said...

ahhh, to be a nerd again

Anonymous said...

McGuffin? isn't that the name of that 'safety dog"?

Je resile
Tu resiles
Il/elle resile
Nous resilons
Vous resilez
Ils/Elles resilent

Anonymous said...

Maybe harper should recile from his Alliance with a sovereigntist party? I just fould this hilarious site, www.harperduceppe2005.com

Anonymous said...

It's a pretty funny site. some of the captions are a bit cheesy though...

Anonymous said...

tim, thanks for the link. I'm not quite sure that I like it though. As much as I like to make fun of Mr. Harper, it seems like a pretty low punch. I wonder who's putting the site up....hmmmm....