Etymologically
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imaginable

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ɪˈmadʒɪnəbəl/, /-nəbəl/[1]
  • US: /ɪˈmæd͡ʒɪnəbəl/, /-nəbəl/[1]

Etymology

The OED takes it partly as borrowed from Middle French imaginable, also ymaginable, recorded in Old French from about 1298,[2] and partly as borrowed from Late Latin imāginābilis (“capable of being imagined”), used from the 4th century and by Boethius in the 6th;[2][3][4][5][6] the Middle English Dictionary gives only the Latin word.[7] The Latin adjective is formed from imāginor (“to picture to oneself”) with -bilis, the source of -able,[3][4][8] and the Oxford Dictionary of English traces the verb to imāgō (“image, likeness”).[9] The OED compares Catalan imaginable of the late 13th century and Italian immaginabile of before 1332.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Capable of being imagined or conceived: about 1400, in a copy of Chaucer's translation of Boethius, which was made about 1380.[2][7] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century,[3] Dictionary.com to 1325–75.[8]

Semantic evolution

In Chaucer's Boece the word belongs to the language of philosophy, setting the things that can be imagined beside those that can be sensed.[7] Its emphatic use after a superlative or after all, every or no is recorded from 1614.[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "possible to be conceived", quoting Tillotson's "the greatest darkness imaginable".[10]

Timeline

  • c. 1400 – capable of being imagined, in Chaucer's Boece.[2][7]
  • 1614 – after a superlative or all, every, no, for emphasis.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Able to be imagined; conceivable.[4][2][5]
  2. Used after a superlative or with all, every or no for emphasis: the coldest winter imaginable, in every imaginable colour.[4][2]

Word family

  • imaginability
  • imaginably
  • imaginableness

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.