immobile

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English immobil, also immebel,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French immobile,^[4][3][5][6] from Latin immōbilis (“immovable”),^[4][3][7] formed from in- (“not”) and mōbilis (“movable”),^[3][7][6] the source of mobile.^[8][7] Etymonline gives the Old French form as immoble, recorded from the 13th century, which became French immeuble,^[8] and the OED also dates the French word to the 13th century.^[4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Dictionary.com derive the Middle English word directly from the Latin.^[9][10] The Middle English Dictionary explains the vowel of immebel by the influence of immevable or of Old French mueble.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Incapable of moving or being moved, fixed: about 1340, in a prose treatise of Richard Rolle;^[4] Barnhart dates the form immobill to before 1349.^[3][11] Etymonline says that the word was first used of property; from about 1400 it was also used of faith, for "steadfast".^[8]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word meant steadfast or unshakable, especially of faith, as in a Bible translation of about 1400 in which believers are to stay "stabel and im-mebel" in the faith.^[2][8] It was also used of property that cannot be carried away, such as houses and land, and as a noun for such property.^[2][8] The OED records the literal sense "immovable" together with the looser one, "motionless, stationary", from the same date.^[4] In Latin immōbilis could also mean hard-hearted.^[8] The noun immobility followed probably before 1425, and the verb immobilize in 1871, perhaps influenced by French immobiliser.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1340 – immovable, fixed; also motionless.^[4]
• c. 1400 – steadfast, unshakable; of property, not portable.^[2][8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not moving; motionless: The heron stood immobile in the shallows.^[12][9][4]
2. Unable to move or to be moved; fixed or immovable.^{[12][9][4][6]}

Word family

• immobility
• immobilism
• immobilize

Related words

• mobile
• immovable
• move
• mobility

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins