inability | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

26 entries found.

mid-15c., inhabilite, "disqualification for office," from in- (1) + ability. Earlier was unability "incapability; incompetence" (late 14c.). General sense "state of being unable" is recorded by c. 1500.

incontinence (n.)

late 14c., "inability to restrain sexual desire, sexual immorality," later "inability to keep to a religious rule" (early 15c.), from Old French incontinence "lack of abstinence, unchastity" (12c.) or directly from Latin incontinentia "greediness; incontinence, inability to contain," abstract noun from incontinens "incontinent, immoderate, intemperate" (see incontinent). Meaning "inability to restrain bodily functions" is from 1754.

muteness (n.)

"dumbness, forbearance from speaking or inability to speak," 1580s, from mute (adj.) + -ness.

dumbness (n.)

"inability to speak," Middle English dombenesse, from Old English dumbnes; see dumb (adj.) + -ness. As "stupidity," by 1858.

prosopagnosia (n.)

"inability to recognize faces," 1950, Medical Latin from German prosopagnosie (1948), from Greek prosopon "face" (see prosopopeia) + agnosia "ignorance" (see agnostic).

aphagia (n.)

"inability to swallow," 1854, from a- (3) "not, without" + abstract noun from Greek phagein "to eat" (from PIE root *bhag- "to share out, apportion; to get a share").

illiteracy (n.)

1650s, "inability to read and write," from illiterate + abstract noun suffix -cy. Earlier in this sense was illiterature (1590s).

anhedonia (n.)

"inability to feel pleasure," 1897, from French anhédonie, coined 1896 by French psychologist Theodule Ribot as an opposite to analgesia, from Greek an- "not, without" (see an- (1)) + hedone "pleasure" (see hedonist) + abstract noun ending -ia.

impossibility (n.)

late 14c., "quality of being impossible," from impossible + -ity; perhaps from or modeled on Old French impossibilité (14c.). Meaning "an impossible thing or occurrence" is from c. 1500. Sometimes in English 15c.-18c. it meant "inability, impotence," after a use of Medieval Latin impossibilitas.

insomnia (n.)

"chronic inability to sleep," 1620s, insomnie, from Latin insomnia "want of sleep, sleeplessness," from insomnis "sleepless," from in- "not" (see in- (1)) + somnus "sleep" (from PIE root *swep- "to sleep"). The re-Latinized form is from 1758.

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