Friday word: Resilience

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resilience
noun re·sil·ience \ri-ˈzil-yən(t)s\

1: the capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation caused especially by compressive stress

2: an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change
See resilience defined for English-language learners

Examples

The rescue workers showed remarkable resilience in dealing with the difficult conditions.
Cold temperatures caused the material to lose resilience.

… the concert remained a remarkable tribute to Dylan's resilience and continued relevance. —Susan Richardson, Rolling Stone, 15 Dec. 1994

He squeezed the rubber with a clamp and then released it—demonstrating with this painfully simple experiment that the material lost its resilience and therefore its ability to flex rapidly enough to protect the rocket joint from tumultuous hot gases. —James Gleick, New York Times Book Review, 13 Nov. 1988

With amazing resilience the two tribes pulled together and set out to found a new town farther up the river. —Carolyn Gilman, American Indian Art Magazine, Spring 1988

It is really wonderful how much resilience there is in human nature. Let any obstructing cause, no matter what, be removed in any way, even by death, and we fly back to first principles of hope and enjoyment. —Bram Stoker, Dracula, 1897

Etymology:

Latin resilient-, resiliens, present participle of resilire to jump back, recoil, from re- + salire to leap

First Known Use: 1824