"refusal of submission, obstinate noncompliance or nonconformity," 1845, from French récalcitrance or a native formation from recalcitrant + -ance.
Entries linking to recalcitrance
recalcitrant adj.
"refusing to submit, not submissive or compliant," 1823, from French récalcitrant, literally "kicking back" (17c.-18c.), from Late Latin recalcitrantem (nominative recalcitrans), present participle of recalcitrare "to kick back" (of horses), also "be inaccessible," in Late Latin "to be petulant or disobedient;" from re- "back" (see re-) + Latin calcitrare "to kick," from calx (genitive calcis) "heel" (see calcaneus). Used from 1797 as a French word in English.
-ance
word-forming element attached to verbs to form abstract nouns of process or fact (convergence from converge), or of state or quality (absence from absent); ultimately from Latin -antia and -entia, which depended on the vowel in the stem word, from PIE *-nt-, adjectival suffix.
Latin present-participle endings for verbs stems in -a- were distinguished from those in -i- and -e-. Hence Modern English protestant, opponent, obedient from Latin protestare, opponere, obedire.
As Old French evolved from Latin, these were leveled to -ance, but later French borrowings from Latin (some of them subsequently passed to English) used the appropriate Latin form of the ending, as did words borrowed by English directly from Latin (diligence,absence).
English thus inherited a confused mass of words from French (crescent/croissant), and further confused it since c. 1500 by restoring -ence selectively in some forms of these words to conform with Latin. Thus dependant, but independence, etc.