Resource | Vocabulary | Khan Academy

Gather your wits about you, word Smiths, because the word we're talking about today is resource!

Food in the pantry, diamonds in the mind, wealth, brain power—resource. It's a noun; it means wealth, money, minerals, land, or other useful things. We can think of natural resources as things that come from the land, like timber or stone, or even things like clean air and fresh water. These are resources too, to be cherished and protected. But it could also mean, just like money, someone with a lot of resources at their disposal might have a lot of cash or connections.

The derivation of this word is intriguing to me. It comes from the French word "resour," which means a spring, like a natural source of water, and that ultimately comes from the Latin, which means to rise up, to rise once more. "Reay" or "re" means back or again or against, and "sur" or "source" means to push up or forward, like a wave.

So let's see what we can make out of those word parts: re, sur, and source.

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Let's kick [Music]!

Okay, here's what I've got: "resourceful," which is an adjective meaning clever and capable. A resourceful person knows what to do in a pinch.

"Surge," which is a noun or a verb that means to push forward, like a wave. Right? A power surge, or like a crowd surging forward at a concert.

Using "re" again, we've got "resonate," which is to sound again. Something that resonates is literally something that echoes, right? "Reon," to sound again, and figuratively, is something that makes you feel a connection. The echo is happening inside of you.

Let's try using "resource" in a couple of sentences so you can see some of the ways that we can use it. First, let's use it in the noun form:

There's a lot of interest in using the ocean's tides as a renewable energy resource. So the tides are a source of electrical power, which is one of the ways in which they might be valuable to a society.

Personally, I like how the tides expose little bits of beach glass that I collect in jars, but that's just me.

Let's talk about the adjective form: resourceful. Someone who is good at marshalling resources to meet their needs. Captain Corey was a very resourceful pirate, always repurposing bits of shipwrecks to upgrade his own vessel. He took advantage, right, of those resources that were available as he sailed past shipwrecks, however those shipwrecks happened to occur.

Stay resourceful, wordsmiths! You can learn anything.

Dve it out!