Resiler

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. To spring back or rebound elastically after being compressed or stretched ; to shrink back or withdraw from a commitment or position
2. To bounce or snap back into its original shape after deformation ; to flinch or pull away from something difficult or unpleasant
3. To rebound with elastic force after pressure is released ; to pull back or hesitate when faced with an obstacle or challenge

Etymology: The Latin verb "resilire" meant "to leap back" or "recoil," built from "re-" (back) and "salire" (to leap), the same root behind "salient" and "assault." English borrowed the verb as "resile" in the early 1600s, and it kept that physical sense of springing or shrinking back. Within a few decades, Scottish legal usage had turned it into a word for backing out of an agreement, so that one could resile from a bargain. "Resiler" is the form for the person doing the backing out, and it stayed largely within legal and formal writing. The idea of a sudden bounce back also survives in "resilient," which came from the same Latin verb through the adjective "resiliens" and later took on the sense of recovering from hardship. The verb itself is now uncommon outside Scottish law and literary English.