impediment

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English impediment, also empediement,^[2] borrowed from Latin impedīmentum (“hindrance; in the plural, baggage”)^[3][2][4][5] and partly borrowed from Old French empedement.^[6][7][2] The Anglo-Norman form, also spelled empediment, is recorded from the second quarter of the 13th century, with the senses of hindrance, a faltering of the voice and travelling luggage already in place.^[8] The Latin noun comes from impediō (“to impede; literally to shackle the feet”),^[3][6] which is formed from in- (“in”) and pēs (“foot”),^[6] from Proto-Indo-European *ped- (“foot”).^[6] Impede, recorded from about 1600, may be a back-formation from this noun.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A hindrance or obstruction: 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew de Glanville.^[3] The Middle English Dictionary's first quotation is from Lanfranc's surgery, before 1400, about something that stops a vein being closed,^[2] and Etymonline dates the word to about 1400.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Early use was often medical: the Middle English Dictionary records obstacles to treatment and to breathing, a risk to health, a speech impediment, and in astrology a position of the planets that interferes with another's influence.^[2] From the general sense came, in the 16th century, a physical defect, which the OED records from 1542 to 1657, and more narrowly a hindrance to clear speech, from before 1513.^[3] The defect sense now refers especially to speech.^[4][9] Latin's plural sense "baggage" was taken up too, from about 1550, especially of an army's baggage,^[3][4] and the Latin plural itself became the English word impedimenta in that sense.^[10] Johnson (1755) gave "hindrance; let; impeachment; obstruction; opposition", and quoted the Bible's "an impediment in his speech".^[11] A verb meaning to obstruct was used from 1610 to 1653.^[3] Wright's dialect dictionary records the noun in Ireland for any physical defect, as of a man who had lost part of his hand.^[12]

Timeline

• 1398 – a hindrance or obstruction.^[3]
• before 1513 – an obstruction to clear speech, a stammer or stutter.^[3]
• 1542 – a physical defect or malady (obsolete by 1657).^[3]
• c. 1550 – baggage, especially of an army.^[3]
• 1610 – verb, to obstruct (obsolete by 1653).^[3]
• 1819 – in astrology, the impeded condition of a planet.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Something that gets in the way; a hindrance or obstacle: Her age was no impediment to the climb.^[13][9][3]
2. A physical defect that interferes with speech, such as a stammer or lisp.^[13][9][4]
3. The fact or state of being hindered; obstruction.^[9][3]
4. (law) An obstruction to making a contract, especially a marriage between close relations.^[13]
5. (obsolete) A physical defect in general.^[3][4]
6. (obsolete) Travelling equipment, especially an army's baggage; impedimenta.^[10][4]

Word family

• impedimental

Related words

• impede
• impedimenta

References

1. ^ 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 g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins