Etymologically
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immortal

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ɪˈmɔːtəl/[1]
  • US: /ɪˈmɔɹtəl/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin immortālis (“deathless, undying”),[2][3][4][5] perhaps under the influence of immortel,[4][6] formed from in- (“not”) and mortālis (“mortal, subject to death”),[3][7][8] which comes from mors (“death”).[6] In the plural, the Latin adjective served as a noun for the gods.[2][4] Etymonline, following Watkins, traces mortālis to the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *mer- (“to rub away, harm, die”).[3][6] The OED compares French immortel (13th–14th century) and Italian immortale.[2] Barnhart notes that the noun may also be a back-formation from immortality, which is recorded earlier, about 1340.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Not subject to death; living for ever: about 1374, in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde;[2] Barnhart cites his Parlement of Foules, about 1380.[4]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that the Latin word was already used both of the undying gods and of imperishable fame, love or works.[3] In English it was applied to fame and to famous works and their authors from about 1518,[2] and in hyperbole meant "lasting, constant, eternal" from 1538.[2] A 16th-century colloquial sense, "superhuman, excessive", is obsolete.[2] The noun, an immortal being, is recorded from 1645, in Edmund Waller,[2] or the 1680s according to Etymonline,[3] and in the plural it was a title of the classical gods.[2][4] From 1803 the Immortals named the royal bodyguard of ancient Persia,[2] and since 1882 the noun has meant a person, especially an author, of lasting fame.[2][9]

Timeline

  • c1374 – not subject to death.[2]
  • ?1518 – of fame or famous works, lasting through the ages.[2]
  • 1538 – lasting, perpetual, in hyperbole.[2]
  • 1645 – noun, an immortal being; in the plural, the gods.[2]
  • 1803 – the Immortals, the royal bodyguard of ancient Persia.[2]
  • 1882 – noun, a person of enduring fame.[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Not subject to death; living for ever: the immortal soul.
  2. Remembered for ever; of lasting fame: the immortal works of the old masters.
  3. Lasting, everlasting, perpetual.
  4. Of or relating to immortal beings; divine.

Noun

  1. An immortal being, especially one of the gods of classical mythology.
  2. A person, especially a writer, whose fame is lasting, often in the plural.

Word family

  • immortally
  • immortalise
  • immortalize
  • immortality

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins