English

Noun

revenant ‎(plural revenants)

1. Someone who returns from a long absence.
   • 1886, Mrs Lynn Linton, Paston Carew viii, as cited in the Oxford English Dictionary, volume 8 part 1, published 1914, page 595:

     They would not visit this undesirable revenant with his insolent wealth and discreditable origin.

   • 1895 August 31, Daily News 4/7, as cited in the Oxford English Dictionary, volume 8 part 1, published 1914, page 595:

     The undergraduates, our fogey revenant observes, look much as they did.., in outward aspect.

   • 2008, Andrew Cusack, Wanderer in 19th-Century German Literature, Camden House, ISBN 978-1-57113-386-1, page 91:

     From this moment on, the hero's fate is sealed; an attempt to reestablish himself in human society, though initially successful, inevitably fails. The stone tablet exerts an invincible fascination over the revenant, who becomes so withdrawn that his father implores him: […]

2. A person or thing reborn.
   • 2007, John Burrow, A History of Histories, Penguin 2009, page 184:

     Sometimes […] semi-identifications could be made on the basis of names. Henry VII's son Arthur was hailed as a revenant in this way.

3. A supernatural being that returns from the dead; a zombie or ghost.
   • 1837 Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History

     For granting even that Religion were dead; that it had died, half-centuries ago, with unutterable Dubois; or emigrated lately, to Alsace, with Necklace-Cardinal Rohan; or that it now walked as goblin revenant with Bishop Talleyrand of Autun; yet does not the Shadow of Religion, the Cant of Religion, still linger?

   • 1969, Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah, 2008 ed. edition, ISBN 0441015611, page 19:

     Earlier you mentioned a ghost, a revenant with which we may contaminate the Emperor.

   • 2011, Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke & Bone, ISBN 9780316192149:

     And to a revenant who had lived in body after body, died death after death, evanescence could seem like a dream of peace. But the chimaera could ill afford to let soldiers go.

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:ghost

Translations

Adjective

revenant ‎(comparative more revenant, superlative most revenant)

1. Used as an adjective.
   • 1988, Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses, Random House (2008), page 134:

     On clear nights when the moon was full, she waited for its shining revenant ghost.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁə.və.nɑ̃/

Verb

revenant

1. present participle of revenir

Noun

revenant m ‎(plural revenants, feminine revenante)

1. A supernatural being that returns from the dead; a zombie or ghost.
2. A person who returns after a long absence

Anagrams

• énervant, vénérant