Persist

In response to Resist

I wasn’t overly fond of the “most relevant” options for synonyms (abide, combat, confront, continue, curb, defy, endure, forgo, maintain, prevent, refuse, repel, and thwart) so I dug a little deeper into the thesaurus and found a couple entries with a bit more appeal: persevere and persist. Both these words evoke a proactive alternative to resistance. I’m going with persist partly because it rhymes with resist.

I don’t know about you, but I think of these three words as sort of a continuum of insurrection: resist, persevere, persist. From left to right these range from most passive to most aggressive. There’s a defensive note to resist, the sense of being embattled, perhaps even on the ropes, an attempt to hold back an opponent’s advance. To persevere, there’s a sense of gaining the sought after outcome. To persevere is to remain in place, even to advance some. Then there’s dogged persistence, more active still, and more forward motion. We persist until we move the barriers back. This is our opportunity to push back.

So in the context of what I posted on Resist, we have resisted enough. It’s time to pursue a solution.

Synonyms:

continue, endure, go on, linger, persevere, prevail, pursue, recur, remain… more synonyms

Want to Play?

You can think of this game as a one-word writing prompt. Instead of being given the word, you’re being given a list of synonyms to choose your one word from. But if you just want to think of it as a game, it’s one of those games without winners or losers. Well, maybe everybody wins.

Here are the rules.