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Topic: Restive & restful

Today we invite you to relax while we look at a term whose senses have moved around quite a bit over the centuries. The impetus for this investigation came from a listener who wondered why restive and restful have such very different meanings.

Restful—meaning "marked by, affording, or suggesting rest and repose; quiet; being at rest"—comes from the Middle English word for "rest; bed;" it has ancient kin in terms naming the measure of distance between two resting places.

Restive, meanwhile, is generally used to mean "stubbornly resisting control; balky;" or "marked by impatience; fidgety." Where did that come from? Be patient while we explain. Restive comes from the Middle English restiffe, a word once used to describe animals who were stationary, animals who refused to go forward; or animals who resisted control. This restiffe developed from the Middle French rester meaning "to stop behind; remain." When restive first appeared in English, it meant "disposed to rest; inactive; sluggish." By the mid-1400s, restive had picked up a second sense typically used of horses: "standing firm; unwilling to yield or adjust; stubborn; inflexible." The original sense is now archaic, and the second sense went on to develop beyond its equine application (so that a fractious child as well as stubborn horse might be described as "restive"); that resistive connotation of restive has remained to this day.

Questions or comments? Write us at wftw@aol.com Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and Web sites including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.