Resource

How to spell resource

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce resource

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does resource mean?

1. nounA stock or supply of money, materials, staff, or other assets that can be drawn on when needed.
2. verbTo provide a person, project, or organisation with the money, staff, or materials needed to function.

Resource in a sentence

• noun

  The library is a valuable resource for anyone researching local history.

• verb

  The council failed to properly resource the new recycling scheme.

• noun

  Water is the one resource the desert region cannot afford to waste.

• verb

  Senior leaders promised to fully resource the research department next year.

Where does resource come from?

Language of origin: French

Resource arrived in English in the 1600s from the French word ressource, a noun built on the older French verb resourdre, meaning 'to rise again' or 'to recover'. That French verb came in turn from the Latin resurgere, formed from re- 'again' and surgere 'to rise or spring up', the same root that gives us 'surge' and 'resurrection'. The original idea was of a fresh means of recovery, something you could fall back on to lift yourself out of difficulty, which is why a resource is still understood as a supply you can draw upon in need. Over time the sense broadened from a personal expedient to the materials, money, and assets a person or country holds in reserve. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the single 's' sounds like a 'z', and the word hides the everyday word 'source' inside it, which is a useful anchor for remembering both the letters and the meaning.

How the word is built

• re- (again, back)
• source (from Latin surgere: to rise, spring up)