# resipiscence
## English
### Etymology

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]’)).

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˌɹɛsɪˈpɪsn̩(t)s/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (General American) IPA: /ˌɹɛsəˈpɪsn̩(t)s/
* Hyphenation: re‧si‧pisc‧ence

### Noun

resipiscence (usually uncountable, plural resipiscences) (chiefly literary)
* (uncountable) Recognition of one or more past mistakes, especially with a desire to improve in the future; repentance; (countable) an instance of this. [from 16th c.]
** 1570, [Alexander Nowell], “The Second Part. Of the Gospell and Faith.”, in T[homas] Norton, transl., A Catechisme, or First Instruction and Learning of Christian Religion. […], London: […] Iohn Daye […], →OCLC, folios 47, recto – 48, verso: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.
** [1622], P[eter] Canisius, “Of Indulgences, or Pardons”, in [Henry Garnet], transl., A Summe of Christian Doctrine: […], Saint-Omer: […] [Charles Boscart] for Iohn Heigham, […], →OCLC, page 644:[T]hey vvill not haue to ſignifie a ſorrovvefull repentance, but a Resipiscence, or vvaxing vviſe againe vvhich God graunt they may doe vvithout any ſorrovve, or affliction of minde for that vvhich is paſt.
** 1796 (date written), John Maclaurin, “Address to the Powers at War”, in The Works of the Late John Maclaurin, Esq. of Dreghorn: […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] J. Ruthven and Sons; and sold by Bell & Bradfute, and E. Balfour, published 1798, →OCLC, page 177:[R]ecollect your conduct paſt, / That reſipiſc[e]nce may at laſt / Effectuate a change.
** 1817 [May?] (date written), Thomas Jefferson, “To George Ticknor [letter]”, in Paul Leicester Ford, editor, The Works of Thomas Jefferson […], federal edition, volume XII, New York, N.Y.; London: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons […], published 1905, →OCLC, pages 59–60:Amid these enlarged measures, the papers tell us of one by the legislature of New York, so much in the opposite direction that it would puzzle us to say in what, the darkest age of the history of bigotry and barbarism, we should find an apt place for it. It is said they have declared by law that all those who hereafter shall join in communion with the religious sect of Shaking quakers, shall be deemed civilly dead, their marriage vows dissolved, and all their children and property taken from them; without any provision for rehabilitation in case of resipiscence.
** 1827, Henry Hallam, “From the Dissolution of Charles [I]’s Third Parliament to the Meeting of the Long Parliament”, in The Constitutional History of England from the Accession of Henry VII. to the Death of George II. […], volume I, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 525:The church of England was no longer exasperated against them; if there was ever any prosecution, it was to screen the king from the reproach of the puritans. They drew a flattering picture of the resipiscence of the Anglican party; who are come to acknowledge the truth in some articles, and differ in others rather verbally than in substance, or in points not fundamental; […]
** 1863, Ernest Naville, “Seventh Lecture. Religion.”, in Life Eternal. […], London: W. H. Dalton, […], →OCLC, page 221:[G]reat intellect knows no resipiscence and high art has nothing to repent of.
** 1887, Henry Charles Lea, “Bohemia”, in A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages. […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 491:Seven bishops arrayed him [Jan Hus] in priestly garb and warned him to recant while yet there was time. He turned to the crowd, and with broken voice declared that he could not confess the errors which he had never entertained, let he should lie to God, when the bishops interrupted him, crying that they had waited long enough, for he was obstinate in his heresy. […] There had already been afforded ample opportunity for resipiscence, and the convict could always still recant up to the lighting of the fagots.
** 1958, John of Damascus, quotee, “Introduction”, in Frederic H[athaway] Chase, Jr., transl., Saint John of Damascus: Writings (The Fathers of the Church: A New Translation; 37), New York, N.Y.: Fathers of the Church, →OCLC, page xiii:[I]f a king preach a gospel to you other than that which you have received, close your ears. For I still hesitate to say, as did the Apostle (Gal[atians] 1:8), let him be anathema, as long as I see any possibility of resipiscence … it does not belong to kings to legislate for the Church … to kings belongs the maintenance of civil order, but the administration of the Church belongs to the shepherds and teachers.
** 2005, Gilles Quispel, “Plotinus and the Jewish Gnōstikoi”, in Johannes van Oort, editor, Gnostica, Judaica, Catholica: Collected Essays of Gilles Quispel (Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies; 55), Leiden, South Holland: Brill, published 2008, →ISBN, →ISSN, part II (Judaica), page 590:What to say of the other notions (hypostasis) they introduce, exiles (paroikia), reflections (antitypos) and resipiscences (metanoia). If they say that that are passions of the Soul (Psyche, Sophia) when she comes to herself and reflections, when she beholds symbols of Reality but not Reality itself, that is characteristic of people who use resounding neologisms to make propaganda for their sect.A translation from Plotinus’s Against the Gnostics II, 9, 6, 1–6.
* (uncountable) 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.
** 1928 December 17, J[oshua] Reuben Clark, quoting Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, “The Grand Alliance and the Holy Alliance [Leopold II to the Empress of Russia, the Electress of Mayence, and the Kings of England, Prussia, Spain, Sicily, and Sardinia]”, in Memorandum on the Monroe Doctrine, Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, published 1930, →OCLC, pages 45–46:The most urgent thing to do seems to be that we come all together in having at once our Ministers in France give a joint declaration or like and simultaneous declarations which may bring to their senses the leaders of the violent party [behind the French Revolution] and avert desperate decisions by still leaving open to them a way for honest resipiscence and the peaceful establishment of a condition of things in France that will at least save the dignity of the Crown and the essential consideration of general tranquillity, […]
** 1973, Oliver Sacks, “[Perspectives] Awakening”, in Awakenings, London: Picador, published 2011, →ISBN:This return-to-oneself, resipiscence, 'rebirth,' is an infinitely dramatic and moving event, especially in a patient with a rich and full self, who has been dispossessed by disease for years or decades […] That a return to health or resipiscence is possible, in these patients with half a century of the profoundest illness, must fill one with a sense of amazement—that the potential for health and self can survive, after so much of the life and structure of the person has been lost, and after so long and exclusive an immersion in sickness.
** 1996, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, “Hope”, in Carrol F. Coates, transl., Dignity, Charlottesville, Va.; London: University Press of Virginia, →ISBN, page 123: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.
** 2012, Will Self, Umbrella, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, published 2013, →ISBN, page 211:All this is, Busner thinks, still inadequate to the task of expressing the quality of her resipiscence – a return to good health of a miraculous nature.

#### Related terms

* resipiscency (obsolete)
* resipiscent
* sapience
* sapient

#### Translations
### References

* ↑ “resipiscence, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2023.
* ↑ “resipiscence, n.”, in Collins English Dictionary.

### Further reading

* repentance on Wikipedia.Wikipedia