insurrection

English

WOTD – 27 December 2021

Etymology

From Late Middle English insurreccion (“uprising against a government, rebellion, revolt; civil disorder, riot; illegal armed assault”) [and other forms],^[1] from Middle French insurrection, Old French insurreccïon (modern French insurrection), and from their etymon Latin īnsurrēctiōnem (rare), the accusative singular of īnsurrēctiō (“rising up, insurrection, rebellion”), from īnsurgō (“to rise up”),^[2] from in- (prefix meaning ‘in, inside, within’) + surgō (“to arise, get up; to rise”) (from sub- (prefix meaning ‘(from) beneath, under’) + regō (“to direct, govern, rule; to guide, steer; to manage, oversee”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to right oneself, straighten; just; right”))).

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɪnsəˈɹɛkʃn̩/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɪnsəˈɹɛkʃ(ə)n/
Rhymes: -ɛkʃən
Hyphenation: in‧sur‧rect‧ion

Noun

insurrection (countable and uncountable, plural insurrections) (also figuratively)

(uncountable) The action of part or all of a national population violently rising up against the government or other authority; (countable) an instance of this; a revolt, an uprising; specifically, one that is at an initial stage or limited in nature.
Synonyms: insurgency, mutiny, rebellion, rising

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. (1866, Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Section 3)
- 1577, Raphaell Holinshed, “King Henry the Eyghte”, in The Laste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume II, London: […] for Iohn Hunne, →OCLC, page 1568, column 2:
  After this, by the great wiſedome and politic of the Nobles and Captaynes, a communication was had, and an agreement made vppon the Kings pardon, obtayned for all the Captaynes and chiefe doers in this inſurrection, and promiſe made that they ſhoulde bee gentlye heard, to declare ſuch things as they found themſelues agreeued with, […]
- 1642 (indicated as 1641), John Milton, “That Prelaty Was Not Set Up for Prevention of Schisme, as is Pretended, or if It Were, that It Performes Not What It Was First Set Up for, but Quite the Contrary”, in The Reason of Church-governement Urg’d against Prelaty […], London: […] E[dward] G[riffin] for Iohn Rothwell, […], →OCLC, 1st book, page 29:
  And therefore if God afterward gave, or permitted this inſurrection of Epiſcopacy, it is to be fear'd he did it in his wrath, as he gave the Iſraelites a King.
- 1788, Publius [pseudonym; Alexander Hamilton], “Number XXVIII. The Same Subject Continued. [The Necessity of a Government, at Least Equally Energetic with the One Proposed.].”, in The Federalist: A Collection of Essays, Written in Favour of the New Constitution, […] , volume I, New York, N.Y.: […] J. and A. M‘Lean, […], →OCLC, page 173:
  Our own experience has corroborated the leſſons taught by the examples of other nations; […] that ſeditions and inſurrections are unhappily maladies as inſeparable from the body politic, as tumours and eruptions from the natural body; […]
- 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IV, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 85:
  He returned to Spain, and was now on his way to join and take command of an insurrection, whose success was to be the touchstone of their countrymen.
- 2021 January 13, Steven Poole, “'Insurrection': how an old word for an old thing was Trumped”, in The Guardian‎^[1], archived from the original on 20 January 2021:
  Thinking more metaphorically, his American contemporary James Russell Lowell wrote: “It is not the insurrections of ignorance that are dangerous, but the revolts of intelligence.” Had he lived to the year 2021, he might have changed his mind.
- 2021 May 16, Rob Walker, “Secret history: the warrior women who fought their enslavers”, in The Guardian‎^[2], archived from the original on 31 July 2021:
  “They were insuring against the insurrection of cargo – I think that completely sums it up. How can cargo insurrect?” asks Hall.

Derived terms

Related terms

insurrecto

Translations

action of part or all of a national population violently rising up against the government or other authority; an instance of this — see also revolt,‎ uprising