Resourceful means clever at finding ways round problems. A resourceful child, remarkably resourceful, resourceful in a crisis.
It is high praise and it is about improvisation rather than knowledge — a resourceful person solves the problem with what is to hand. It suits emergencies, travel and childhood. Note resourcefulness; and that resource comes from a French word meaning to rise again, so a resource is what lets you recover — which is exactly what a resourceful person finds.
1adjectiveresourcefulClever at finding ways round problems.
“The resourceful student fixed her broken bike with a hair clip and some tape.”
resourceful is a quality of inventiveness.
Resource plus -ful. Resource comes from Old French resourdre, to rise again, from Latin resurgere. Resurrection is the same rising, so a resource is what brings you back up.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₃reǵ-
Latin
resurgō — to rise again, spring up anew
Old French
resourse
Middle French
ressource
English
resource
English, today
resourceful
Built from
From resource + ful. resource Borrowed from Middle French ressource, from Old French resourse, resource (“a source, spring”), from resourdre, from Latin resurgō (“to rise again, spring up anew”). Equivalent to re- + source. See resourd, resurgent, source.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA