immortality

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English immortalite,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French immortalité,^[4][5][6][7] and directly borrowed from Latin immortālitās (“deathlessness, endless life; imperishable fame”),^[5][2][3] formed from immortālis (“undying”) with the suffix -itās.^[6][7][8] The French noun is recorded from the 12th or 13th century,^[4] and the Anglo-Norman form from the early 13th century.^[9] The Latin adjective is formed from in- (“not”) and mortālis (“mortal”), which Etymonline traces, after Watkins, to Proto-Indo-European *mer- (“to rub away, harm; to die”).^[5][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The quality of being immortal, exemption from death; endless life or existence: before 1340, in Richard Rolle's commentary on the Psalter.^[4][11] Etymonline dates the word to the mid-14th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Early uses concern the endless life of the soul and of God: the Wycliffite Bible of about 1384 says of God that he alone "hath immortalite", translating the Latin immortalitatem.^[2][11] Latin immortālitās could already mean "imperishable fame",^[5] and English took up the sense of lasting renown too: Etymonline dates the sense "quality of being permanent", of fame and the like, to the early 15th century,^[5] the Middle English Dictionary records it as "the quality of enduring long, permanence",^[2] and the OED's first quotation for enduring fame is from the Coverdale Bible of 1535.^[4][11] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "exemption from death; life never to end", quoting St Paul's "this mortal must put on immortality" and Milton's "Quaff immortality and joy".^[12]

Timeline

• before 1340 – the condition of being immortal, endless life, in Richard Rolle's Psalter.^[4][11]
• c. 1384 – in the Wycliffite Bible, of God, who alone has immortality.^[2]
• early 15th century – of fame and the like, the quality of being permanent.^[5][2]
• 1535 – enduring fame or remembrance, in the Coverdale Bible.^[4][11]
• 1755 – Johnson defines it as exemption from death.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality or state of being immortal; freedom from death; endless life: Many religions teach the immortality of the soul.^[6][10][4]
2. Lasting fame; the condition of being remembered for all time: The novel won its author a kind of immortality.^[6][10][4]

Related words

• immortal
• mortality
• mortal
• immortalize

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c d e Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.