impasse

Etymology

It is borrowed from French impasse (“impassable road, blind alley”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed in French from in- (“not”), in its assimilated form im-, and passe (“a passing”), from passer (“to pass”), the source of pass.^{[4][3][6][5][7]} The OED and Weekley attribute the French word to Voltaire,^[2][8] who, according to Etymonline and Weekley, coined it as a more dignified word for cul-de-sac.^[4][8] The French prefix is from Latin in-.^[6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A road or way with no outlet, a blind alley, and figuratively a position with no way out: 1851, in H. Greville's diary, in the OED,^[2][3][5] which records both senses together.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to 1763 in the sense "blind alley, dead end".^[4]

Semantic evolution

Voltaire meant the word for a dead-end street, and English first used it in that literal sense.^[4][8][2] The figurative use, a difficulty from which there is no way out, appears around 1840 according to Etymonline, which suggests it may come from the use of the word in the card game whist.^[4] The figurative sense is now the usual one, especially of a dispute in which no progress can be made because the parties disagree, like deadlock and stalemate.^{[9][10][6][7]}

Timeline

• 1763 – a blind alley, dead end.^[4]
• c. 1840 – figurative, a position from which there is no way out.^[4]
• 1851 – a road with no outlet; also figurative, a fix.^[2][3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A situation in which no progress is possible, especially because the parties to a dispute cannot agree; a deadlock or stalemate: The negotiations reached an impasse over wages.^{[9][10][6][7]}
2. A road or passage with no exit; a blind alley or cul-de-sac.^[6][5][2]

Related words

• pass
• passage
• impassable

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins