bouncebackability

Definition

The ability to bounce back or recover from bad circumstances.

Etymology

From bounce back (“to recover from bad circumstances”) + -ability (suffix forming nouns indicating an ability, inclination, or suitability for a specified condition or function). Suggestions that the word was coined in 2004 by Iain Dowie (born 1965), then manager of Crystal Palace Football Club, are inaccurate as the Oxford English Dictionary records a quotation dating back to 1972, but Dowie’s use of the word may have caused it to gain in popularity.

Example Sentences

• "You are able to play the game and to take the wins and losses in your stride. When the losses become too numerous, you will have some "bounce-back" ability and will try again rather than give up or become discouraged."
• "[T]he best of today's furniture fillers, combining the bounce-back-ability of foam with the downy softness of fiber fill."
• "Mr. [Robert] Schuller, a believer in "bouncebackability," is a clone from the Norman Vincent Peale school of positive thinking."