revisitantadj.n.
/riːˈvɪzᵻt(ə)nt/, U.S. /riˈvɪzətnt/ Now rare.
A. adj.
Chiefly of an immaterial being: that returns to a place. literary.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > aspects of travel > return > [adjective]
returning1581
returneda1586
recurring1658
revisitant1729
retour1731
back1868
1729 R. Bradley Riches of Hop-garden 20 Hail heav'nly love! revisitant on earth!
1852 N. Hawthorne Blithedale Romance xxiv. 242 A kind of medium fit for spirits departed and revisitant, like myself.
1911 J. H. Skrine Creed & Creeds i. iv. 94 The world has tales enough of revisitant forms dimly glimpsed in postures of aid over child or friend in danger.
2000 E. Sams Songs Johannes Brahms 267 Note the typical topics of the revisitant Doppelgänger and the lost lover left outside in the cold autumn mists.
B. n.
A person who revisits a place.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > aspects of travel > return > [noun] > one who
returner1534
revisitant1831
revenant1867
comebacker1879
comeback1908
back-tracker1946
boomeranger1984
1831 W. R. Whittingham in Standard Wks. Protestant Episcopal Church U.S. III. Mem. p. xlvii Jewell was not among the earliest revisitants of his country.
1875 M. E. Braddon Strange World II. iii. 42 This was no ghostly revisitant of earth..but a living, loving woman.
1923 Times Lit. Suppl. 21 June 417/1 The old lady was very solicitous after her baggage—as indeed some sixteen centuries earlier had been the revisitants of Pompeii.
1938 S. Leslie Film of Memory 347 His ghost has been reported as a constant revisitant to his home.
1986 Dædalus Summer 4 Leonardo saw the inquiring spirit embodied only in solitary revisitants—Grosseteste, Alhazen, Archimedes, etc.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1729