Dictionary

resurrectionist en · NOUN

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.

Meanings

1. (euphemistic, historical) One who sells cadavers to anatomists, surgeons, etc., especially by exhuming corpses from graves; a graverobber.
   • 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. 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 388:
   • One... who makes open profession of dealing in dead bodies and is well known by the name of the Resurrectionist. 1777, Ann. Reg. 1776, section 129:
2. A believer in a future bodily resurrection.
   • 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.
3. One who resurrects an abandoned idea, practice, etc.; a revivalist.
   • Bank is a theatrical resurrectionist: His New York-based company... specializes in unearthing and staging ‘neglected but worthy’ works. 2007 September 3, Variety, 67
   • We have no taste for enacting the part of literary resurrectionists. 1831, New Monthly Magazine, 32 362:
4. (humorous, obsolete) One who sells repaired or reconditioned goods; a refurbisher.
   • 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’. 1888 July, Longman's Magazine, 256
5. (humorous, obsolete) A racehorse that (once or numerously) suddenly recovers its stamina midrace.
   • There is a class of horses called ‘resurrectionists’... and they either recover early form... or... become animated, when they were supposed to be gone altogether, with... life and vigour. 1883 October 23, Standard, 3/2

Forms

Synonyms

bodysnatcher · resurrectioner · resurrection man