resent [L16th] The word resent is from obsolete French resentir, from re- serving as an intensifier and sentir ‘to feel’, from Latin sentire. The early sense was ‘experience (an emotion or sensation)’ which later developed into ‘feel deeply’ in either a positive or negative sense, giving rise to ‘feel aggrieved by’, a sense present from the early 17th century which eventually pushed out the other senses.