Survey originally catching on in period of revival (14)
I believe the answer is:
reconnaissance
'survey' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'originally catching on in period of revival' is the wordplay.
'originally' indicates taking the first letters.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'period of revival' becomes 'renaissance' (period of rebirth).
The initial letter of 'catching' is 'c'.
'c'+'on'='con'
'con' inserted inside 'renaissance' is 'RECONNAISSANCE'.
(Other definitions for reconnaissance that I've seen before include "Initial survey" , "Preliminary survey" , "Scouting" , "Military observation" .)