resipiscence

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*seh₁p-, *sep-“to taste; to try out”
2. Latin · derived fromresipīscēns
3. Late Latin · derived fromresipīscentia“regaining of a clear state of mind, repentance”
4. Middle French · borrowed fromresipiscence“act of recovering one’s senses or coming back to a more acceptable view; repentance”
5. English todayresipiscence

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]’)).

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• from 16th c. Recognition of one or more past mistakes, especially with a desire to improve in the future; repentance; (countable) an instance of this.