Monday, May 9, 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.

7 comments:

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

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

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  3. 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."

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

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

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  5. Arnold RichardsonMay 12, 2005 at 1:00 PM

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

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  6. 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....

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