ineffable

adj
/ɪˈnɛf.ə.bəl/UK/ˌɪnˈɛf.ə.bəl/US

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Italic *ən- Latin in- Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰ Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰs Proto-Italic *eks Latin ex Latin ex- Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- Proto-Indo-European *bʰéh₂ti Proto-Italic *fāōr Latin for Latin effārī, effor Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlis Proto-Italic *-ðlis Latin -bilis Latin effābilis Latin ineffābilislbor. Middle French ineffablebor. English ineffable Borrowed from Middle French ineffable, a learned borrowing from Latin ineffābilis, from in- + effābilis.

  1. derived from ineffābilis
  2. derived from ineffablebor

Definitions

  1. Beyond expression in words

    Beyond expression in words; unspeakable.

    • Devotion bids aspire to nobler things, to boundless love, and joys ineffable: and such her expectation from kind Heav'n.
    • Stroeve was trying to express a feeling which he had never known before, and he did not know how to put it into common terms. He was like the mystic seeking to describe the ineffable.
    • They, and many others, are one with the trains that ran them, part of that ineffable atmosphere of Scotland's railways.
  2. Forbidden to be uttered

    Forbidden to be uttered; taboo.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for ineffable. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA