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resipiscence

noun /ˌɹɛsɪˈpɪsn̩(t)s/

  1. Recognition of one or more past mistakes, especially with a desire to improve in the future; repentance; (countable) an instance of this.

    literary, uncountable

    And I haue already ſayd how ſinners for obteyning of pardon haue neede of repentance, which ſome like better to call Reſipiſcence, or amendment, and of change of minde: and the Lord promiſeth that he will pardon ſinners if they repent, if they amend and turne their hartes from their naughtie liues vnto hym.

  2. The act of becoming comprehending, reasonable or responsible, especially after having behaved in an uncomprehending, unreasonable, or irresponsible manner; the act of coming to one's senses; (countable) an instance of this.

    literary, uncountable

    On June 16, 1993, the UN voted the embargo on petroleum and arms. With Bazin gone, there was not even a puppet government. After eighty-nine weeks (and how many thousands of hours of verbiage), the international community was finally headed in the only direction that might bring the military to resipiscence.

Where it comes from

Unadapted borrowing from Middle French resipiscence (“act of recovering one’s senses or coming back to a more acceptable view; repentance”) (modern French résipiscence), or from its etymon Late Latin resipīscentia (“regaining of a clear state of mind, repentance”), from Latin resipīscēns + -ia (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). Resipīscēns is the present participle of resipīscō (“to recover one’s senses; to revive”), from re- (prefix meaning ‘again’) + sapiō (“to have flavour or taste; (figurative) to have good taste or discernment; to be sensible or wise”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁p-, *sep- (“to taste; to try out”)) + -īscō (a variant of -ēscō (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘becoming [something]’)).

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry resipiscence (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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