“Resurgo”

Posted by Karen on Jan 20, 2013 | 0 comments

Although considered a dead language, Latin is still used in the creation of new words and remains a “go to” language for many scholars. Consider these familiar phrases:

—    nulli secundus / nulli secunda
“second to none” (male)/(female)

—    vincit qui se vincit
“S/he conquers who conquers her/himself”

—    Deo Optimo Maximo (D.O.M.)
“For God, the best and greatest” (motto of the Benedictines)

Resurgo (“to rise up again”) is the motto of Moncton, New Brunswick. Although the economy of this Canadian city was devastated—first by the collapse of the shipbuilding industry in the 1860s, and then by the closure of the locomotive shops in the 1980s—the city kept rebounding. Moncton adopted the motto Resurgo after its rebirth as a railroad town.

What is your motto? What are you known for?

—    One young Vietnamese artist has chosen for her life motto, ego si relapsus resurgo: “If I fall, I rise again.”

—    Bannered across the Arms of Roslevin Castle (shown above) is percussus resurgo: “When struck down, I rise again.”

—    The motto of Britain’s Durham Light Infantry was aucto splendore resurgo: “I rise again with increase of splendor.”

(Resurgo certainly lives up to its meaning, for here is a word that keeps resurrecting from a dead language!)

“We may be knocked down but we are never knocked out! Every day we experience something of the death of the Lord Jesus, so that we may also know the power of the [resurrection] life of Jesus in these bodies of ours.” (2 Corinthians 4:9-10, PHP)