[‘ The action or fact of breaking out afresh; a recurrence of a disease or medical condition, or of an undesirable state of things, bad feelings, etc., esp. after a period of quiescence or remission.']
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˌriːkruːˈdɛsns/, ˌrɛkruːˈdɛsns, U.S. /ˌrikruˈdɛs(ə)ns/
Etymology: < post-classical Latin /recrudescentia/ (1660 or earlier) < classical Latin /recrūdēscent-, /recrūdēscēns, present participle of recrūdēscere/ recrudesce v. + /-ia/ -ia suffix1: see -ence suffix. Compare French /recrudescence (1810 of an illness; 1834 in extended use). Compare slightly earlier recrudescency n.
*1.* The action or fact of breaking out afresh; a recurrence of a disease or medical condition, or of an undesirable state of things, bad feelings, etc., esp. after a period of quiescence or remission.
1665 G. Thomson /Galeno-pale/ 110 For a few hours after there was a recrudescence and exacerbation of all the foresaid Symptoms.
1671 H. Stubbe /Epistolary Disc. Phlebotomy/ 166 Neither ought there to be any dispute about repeating phlebotomy, since the first occasion thereof continuing, or upon a recrudescence urging us again thereunto, if the Patients strength can bear it, we ought to repeat it.
/a/1734 R. North /Examen/ (1740) iii. viii. §64 632 The King required some Regulations should be made for obviating the Recrudescence of those Ignoramus Abuses, for the future.
1734 W. Stukeley /Of Gout/ ii. 95 There comes a recrudescence, a secondary fitt, or what we call the echo of the gout.
1754 J. Kirkpatrick /Anal. Inoculation/ 34 Very probably..not more than one Constitution in one Million is liable to such repeated and distant Recrudescences of this Disease.
1863 /Sat. Rev./ 1 Aug. 138/1 The recent victories have occasioned, as might have been expected, a recrudescence of calumny and malignity.
1865 J. S. Mill /Auguste Comte/ 24 The recrudescence..of a metaphysical Paganism in the Alexandrian..schools.
1884 /Standard/ 1 Aug., The fears of a recrudescence of the epidemic are now subsiding.
1921 J. Galsworthy /To Let/ 248 That quick-blooded sentiment hatred had run its course long since in Soames’ heart, and he had refused to allow any recrudescence.
1954 J. E. S. Thompson /Rise & Fall Maya Civilization/ i. 35 He has been much criticized for his severity in stamping out recrudescences of paganism.
1993 S. J. Ettinger /Pocket Compan. Textbk. Vet. Internal Med./ xlvii. 147 Recrudescence of lesions with virus replication and shedding of CHV can occur during stress.
*2.* A revival or rediscovery of something good or valuable.
[1865 /N. Amer. Rev./ July 28 There has lately been what the French call a recrudescence in the vitality of the dialetto at the old sub-Alpine capital.]
1877 /Littell’s Living Age/ 21 Apr. 136/2 According to one account there was a recrudescence of zeal on the part of the synagogue, in the time that followed the excommunication.
1881 /Sat. Rev./ 12 Feb. 215 There has been of late a recrudescence of Wordsworthianism.
a/1906 in H. W. Fowler & F. G. Fowler /King’s Eng./ (1906) i. 15 A literary tour de force, a /recrudescence, two or three generations later, of the very respectable William Lamb.
1955 G. Gorer /Exploring Eng. Char./ v. 74 After the age of 24 the interest in the company of one girl drops off sharply and continuously; there is no recrudescence of interest after the age of 35, as there is with women.
1973 /Times Lit. Suppl./ 3 Aug. 900/2 The first fruit of this act of recrudescence was the catalogue of drawings.
1988 L. Gordon /Eliot’s New Life/ i. 12 The recrudescence of old passion in a new emotion, in a new situation which ‘comprehends, enlarges and gives meaning to it’.