Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

resurrectionist

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.15 in modern English

Syllables: res-ur-rec-tion-ist
IPA

17

Scrabble Score

15

Letters

5

Syllables

9

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

One who sells cadavers to anatomists, surgeons, etc., especially by exhuming corpses from graves; a graverobber.

noun

A believer in a future bodily resurrection.

noun

One who resurrects an abandoned idea, practice, etc.; a revivalist.

noun

One who sells repaired or reconditioned goods; a refurbisher.

Humorous; Obsolete

noun

A racehorse that (once or numerously) suddenly recovers its stamina midrace.

Humorous; Obsolete

Example Sentences

"One... who makes open profession of dealing in dead bodies and is well known by the name of the Resurrectionist."
"Early in the 19th century, Udny Green churchyard was a favourite haunt of resurrectionists who dug up freshly interred corpses to sell to the medical school at Aberdeen. To prevent this, in 1832 the villagers built a mort-house where they kept the newly dead for a while before burial."
"1830, A. Addis, Theory of Prophecy, Prol. p.xliv Those who make the rest of the dead... to be the same with the remnant slain by the sword... to be consistent, ought to make the first resurrectionists the same with the armies in heaven."
"We have no taste for enacting the part of literary resurrectionists."
"Bank is a theatrical resurrectionist: His New York-based company... specializes in unearthing and staging ‘neglected but worthy’ works."
"Some of the habitual buyers [of ostrich feathers] have nicknames, and those who do a local business and buy for re-selling are known as ‘resurrectionists’."

Etymology

From resurrection (“the act of rising from the dead and becoming alive again”) + -ist (“forms agents of cause; forms adherents of a belief”), coined alongside resurrection man.

Usage

Subject

Wiktionary places this term in Medicine.

Inflected Forms

resurrectionists (plural)

Synonyms

bodysnatcher resurrectioner resurrection man

Questions

What does resurrectionist mean?: One who sells cadavers to anatomists, surgeons, etc., especially by exhuming corpses from graves; a graverobber.
Where does resurrectionist come from?: From resurrection (“the act of rising from the dead and becoming alive again”) + -ist (“forms agents of cause; forms adherents of a belief”), coined alongside resurrection man.

How to pronounce resurrectionist

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