Recrudesces

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The resurgence of a previously dormant condition or symptom indicates a return to a state after a period of improvement
2. A situation or symptom that had been resolved suddenly reappears, marking a resurgence of previous issues
3. To emerge anew after a period of dormancy or inactivity

Etymology: "Recrudesce" is a verb meaning to break out again after a period of quiet, the way a disease, a quarrel or a fire flares up anew. It was formed in English from the Latin "recrudescere", meaning "to become raw again" or "to break out afresh", built from "re-", "again", and "crudescere", "to grow raw or bloody", from "crudus", "raw" or "uncooked". The Latin root is the same one behind "crude", so the word's oldest sense is physical: a wound reopening, flesh becoming tender once more. The verb's shape is simple: the English word took the Latin stem and its sense of renewed inflammation, and the form "recrudesces" is just the third-person singular present, used with "he", "she" or "it", as in "the infection recrudesces each spring." Its meaning stayed close to the medical image for centuries, so a fever or sore that "recrudesces" is still being pictured as an old injury opening again.

Synonyms: reoccurs, reappears, resurfaces

Antonyms: subsides, diminishes