imminent

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English iminent, also ymynent,^[2][3] borrowed from Latin imminēns (“overhanging; impending”),^[4][3][5][6] partly through Middle French imminent,^[3][5][2] the present participle of immineō (“to project over, overhang, impend, threaten”),^[4][5][6] formed from in- (“in, on, upon”) and -minēre (“to jut, project”), as in ēmineō, the source of eminent.^[4][7][5] The second part is related to mōns (“mountain”),^[3][6][8] and Etymonline, after Watkins, traces it to Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to project”).^[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Likely to happen soon, impending: 1436, as ymynent, in Barnhart;^[3] Etymonline dates it to the mid-15th century.^[5] The OED's first quotation is from 1528, in S. Gardiner, also Merriam-Webster's date,^[4][6] and Dictionary.com dates it 1520–30.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In English the word has almost always been used of something bad or dangerous that hangs over someone;^[4][6] Johnson (1755) wrote that it was "always in an ill sense".^[10] Random House notes that it can also mean simply "about to happen".^[11][9] The literal Latin sense, projecting or overhanging, appears only in 1727,^[4] and Collins marks it as obsolete.^[8] In the 17th century imminent was also confused with immanent and eminent.^[4] The noun imminence is first recorded in 1606, in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida.^[3]

Timeline

• 1436 – ymynent, impending.^[3]
• 1528 – first OED quotation, of a danger close at hand.^[4][6]
• 1605 – confused with immanent (until 1856).^[4]
• 1606 – the noun imminence.^[3]
• 1641 – fixed or intent upon something (obsolete).^[4]
• 1727 – projecting, overhanging.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. About to happen; close at hand, often of something threatening: The forecasters warned that a storm was imminent.^[6][8][4]
2. (obsolete) Projecting or overhanging.^[8][4]

Word family

• imminently
• imminentness
• imminence

Related words

• eminent
• prominent
• immanent
• mount

Usage notes

Random House compares imminent, impending and threatening: all may suggest a coming misfortune, but impending is less immediate and less threatening than imminent, while threatening almost always carries a sense of menace.^[11][9] Imminent is easily confused with eminent and immanent, which sound similar.^[9][1]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House