redole and resipiscence and repristinaterepine and repone and

I can't possibly get through the list of the "re"-words I want to discuss here. I only made it "through" two in the previous essay. Let me list the words I would love to discuss had I time in this context, and then let me pick a few to focus on. Starting with the "red"-words, we have: (1) redargue and redargution; (2) redd; (3) redhibition; (4) redintegrate. I pose a question below. Since we have the suggestive word redolent and its corresponding noun redolence, why shouldn't we make up the verb redole? Then, we have some other words: (5) repine; (6) repone; (7) renitent; (8) repristinate; and (9) resipiscence. This is only the proverbial iceberg tip; let's explore the tip of the tip.

Going Backwards

Let's start with repristinate because it also, like reify, takes me back to my intellectual beginnings as a freshman at Brown University in 1970. I was taking an introductory sociology class and was impressed and almost overwhelmed by the jargon that effortlessly flowed from the lips of my professor. One of his favorite words, as I recall today, was repristinate. I never asked him what he meant by it, but he would always seem to use it in the context of one scholar's trying to develop a concept first mentioned by a scholar of an earlier generation. The second scholar was "repristinating" an idea or a concept of the earlier one. Now, 35 years later, I have studied the word in detail for the first time, and I realize that, at least as the OED has it, the primary usage of repristinate has been in theological discourse. The OED defines it sparely: "To restore to the original condition or position; to revive." Though the word goes back to 1659, it was used by (among others) William Shedd in 1869: "The practice of catechizing children and youths should be repristinated in the American Churches," and Roland Bainton in 1969: "The glory of Greece, the grandeur of Rome, the grace of Galilee should repristinate society and revivify the Church." We can see the word "pristine" lurking not far beneath the surface of the word.

Naturally, Protestant Christianity, which saw itself as recapturing the essence of earliest Christianity, would provide a warm and capacious home for any who wanted to use the term. But my sociologist? As I think of it now, it was probably not inappropriate for him to use the term in relation to the conversation among sociologists, but he rather cheapened the word, in my estimation. Scholars don't really repristinate ideas; they might place themselves in an interpretive tradition; they might adopt or adapt ideas from earlier scholars; they might declare their indebtedness to those who have gone before. But rarely do I see them repristinating anything. Let's keep the term among theologians and social reformers and idealists who see themselves trying to redefine, recapture, or restore something that is a primal, pure essence of an idea or community. If we so confine the word, it can ring with new power. Providing, that is, that people know a little of what it means in the first place.

Repine and Repone

We use neither of these terms today. I would love to recapture the former; the latter has possibilities, too. Just a word on the latter. Repone has had both a general and a legal usage. With respect to the latter, it means restore a person's legal status against a decree or charge, so that a case may be tried afresh. The OED has some quotations. I don't think we need a term in law for this today; suffice it to say we have "remand," for sending a thing back to a lower court or "retrial" for trying a case again. The general meaning is to restore a person to a position or office previously held. "It's given out...that a design is forming to repone Mr. Simson at the next Assembly." We rarely have highly publicized restorations of people to former offices; usually once they step down they have left the office for good. Thus, the term might have a limited application today, but I like it better than the longer one "rehabilitated" or even the more popular one "restore."

A common theme running through the two major definitions of repine is that of discontentment. Repine primairly means "to feel or manifest discontent"; "to fret, murmur, or complain against" something. From as far back as the year after Henry VIII died (1548), we have the following: "He had repined or disdained, that any man should fare well, or be well clothed, but hymself." Then, a generation later, reflecting the fixity of social classes in medieval England, "We ought not to kicke upp the heele, as repining to live in that state, whereunto by birth we were ordeined." Inasmuch as the heart of the Christian message was to teach people not to complain about their earthly lot, we can see how repine would have entered theological discussion with vigor. And, on a personal note, I remember a hymn (I committed hundreds of hymns to memory in the early 1970s, when I was also memorizing the Bible, and it is surprising with what great accuracy and completeness the words come rushing back to me today) sung in our Christian fellowship group at Brown University in the early 1970s. Entitled "He Leadeth Me," the hymn was an Evangelical classic, no doubt penned by a British Evangelical in the 19th century. Listen to the third verse:

"Lord, I would place my hand in thine,
nor ever murmur nor repine;
content, whatever lot I see,
since 'tis his hand that leadeth me."

I no longer resonate with the simple pieties of that hymn; I am glad I never forgot the word repine, even if I have fallen far short of the attitude and actions that that word suggests.

Resipiscence

I wanted to say a word about resipiscence since this was a word that stumped one of the youthful spellers in one of the final rounds of the national bee a few years ago. It doesn't appear in the Collegiate or the Century, but is defined in the OED as "repentance for misconduct; recognition of errors committed; return to a better mind or opinion." Thus, resipiscence is a sort of "repentance" word, in which the one feeling it desires, literally, to recover his/her senses and to begin again. Like the usages of repristination, those of resipiscence are primarily theological--primarily because Christian theology is in the business of granting a new start to people. From 1570: "Sinners..have need of repentance, which some like better to call resipiscence or amendment." And, in a quotation which I love because of the words, from 1670: "Nothing had appeared in them but an obdured obduracy, without any token of resipiscence." Obdured obduracy indeed. I like the sound of the word resipiscence. It is much more appealing to me than "repentance." With it spirant character, it is almost as if the breath of the Spirit's forgiveness wafts over a person who says it.

Conclusion: Why no Verb "To Redole"?

I am out of space, but I have to ask the question. Why is it that we have such pretty and odoriferous (in the first OED sense) words such as redolent ("having or diffusing a pleasant odor; sweet-smelling) and redolence but have no verb derived off these words to express something that smells very pleasant. Instead of saying, "Wow, that flower smells great!," why not say, "It redoles so beautifully" or something like that? Instead of saying, "the flower emits a nice smell," say "it redoles." I think we have something here.

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