repullulate

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin repullulō, repullulātum, from pullulō. See pullulate.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈpʌljʊleɪt/

Verb

repullulate (third-person singular simple present repullulates, present participle repullulating, simple past and past participle repullulated)

1. (archaic, intransitive, botany) To bud or sprout again.
   • 1640, I. H. [i.e., James Howell], ΔΕΝΔΡΟΛΟΓΊΑ [DENDROLOGIA]. Dodona’s Grove, or, The Vocall Forrest, London: […] T[homas] B[adger] for H. Mosley [i.e., Humphrey Moseley] […], →OCLC:

     Though tares repullulate, there is wheat still left in the field.

   • 1722, John Lowthorp, The Philosophical Transactions and Collections, to the End of the Year 1700:

     The Arbutus, doubtful, and so are Bays; but some will escape, and most of them repullulate and spring afresh , if cut down near the Earth, at the latter End of the Month.

   • 1729, John Evelyn, Silva: Or, a Discourse of Forest-trees, page 163:

     nay, though quite cut down, they repullulate and produce young Suckers.

2. (by extension) To come back to life.
   • 1648, Robert Herrick, “His Age, Dedicated to his Peculiar Friend, M. John Wickes, under the Name of Posthumus”, in Hesperides, or The Works Both Humane & Divine of Robert Herrick:

     But vanisht man, Like to a Lilly-lost, nere can, Nere can repullulate, or bring His dayes to see a second Spring.

   • 1728, Nathaniel Marwick, Stricture Lucis, page 321:

     When the Dragon, or Beast actuated by the Dragon, had received a mortal Wound by Constantine, and the Hydra's Head was cut off at ancient Rome, it did, in Process of Time, repullulate in Constantinople, so that the Beast , which had a Wound in his primary, principal, and most capital Head, (if I may be allowed so to speak) did yet survive and put forth another very eminent Head and Horns, now of a long Time visible, and terrible enough to the Beholders, in the Turkish Empire.

   • 1843, Benjamin Church, ‎Thomas Church, The History of Philip's War: Commonly Called the Great Indian War of 1675, page 341:

     yet they eat one another, every day; but anon, God restores and renews the man that was eaten, as a cropt plant in a little time repullulates.

   • 1994, The Bulletin - Issues 5918-5926, page 48:

     We also have a saw that runs: "The mountebank always gets his man" The man, comprehensively got, studded with shards of his own petard, tore himself from the Hong Kong racetrack to repullulate before the committee, now transformed from a body of enquiry to the audience of a popular television soap.

3. To reappear.
   • 1675, Alexander Ross, Πανσεβεια, or, A View of all Religions in the World etc, page 3:

     Thus is the Lord pleased to deal with us, he suffers Heresies to repullulate, that they who are appoved among us may be manifested.

   • 1679, William Gearing, The Sacred Diary, page 211:

     As the Poets write of that many-headed-Monster Hydra, that Hercules encounter'd with; that still the more Heads he cut off, the more did repullulate, and spring up in their rooms: So we fhall find it true of that uncouth monster of Sin that is bred in our Natures, the more Corruptions and Temptations we vanquish and subdue, the more will multiply upon us still.

   • 1826, P. Anichini, An Analytical and Historical View of the Catholic Religion, page 241:

     The evil may be momentarily kept back by the reigning spirit of public opinion, but the seeds still exist, and, not unlike the germs of the plague suppressed by the re-appearance of wintry seasons, they are ready to repullulate at the first favourable opportunity .

4. (medicine) To regrow or reemerge after having been removed.
   • 1832 November 24, M. Le Baron Dupuytren, “On Osseous Cysts, and Their Parietes”, in The Lancet, volume 1, number 482, page 260:

     The materials of the cysts, when not entirely destroyed, repullulate with great facility, and have been known to be renewed to or three times

   • 1907, Chevalier Jackson, Tracheo-bronchoscopy, Esophagoscopy and Gastroscopy, page 114:

     They do not infiltrate, hence are not malignant, but they repullulate in a most stubborn manner if any portion is left.

   • 1943, William Lincoln Ballenger, ‎Howard Charles Ballenger, Diseases of the Nose, Throat and Ear: Medical and Surgical, page 909:

     Papillomata in children is a self-limited disease, and if the airway is kept open the growths will cease to repullulate.

Related terms

• repullulation

References

• “repullulate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.