impious

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin impius (“without reverence, irreverent, wicked; undutiful”), with the English suffix -ous,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]} the Latin word being formed from in- (“not”), assimilated to im-, and pius (“dutiful, pious”).^[3][4][8][9] The OED compares Old French impieux, in Godefroy from the 15th and 16th centuries, while French impie, in Cotgrave (1611), comes directly from the Latin.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lacking reverence for God: 1542 in Merriam-Webster Unabridged,^[9] the mid-16th century in the Shorter Oxford,^[7] 1565–75 in Dictionary.com,^[10] 1585 in the OED, of actions and sayings, from Archbishop Sandys's sermons,^[2] and the 1590s in Etymonline.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The adjective came long after the noun impiety, recorded before 1340.^[2][5] From the start it was mainly religious: without reverence for God, profane.^[2][3] Shakespeare applied it to a person in 1594, in Henry VI, Part 2.^[2] Latin impius was wider, covering the undutiful and the unpatriotic,^[3] and English took that up rarely, from 1613 in Purchas, for those lacking natural reverence, especially towards parents.^[2][7] Johnson (1755) gave "irreligious; wicked; profane; without reverence of religion", quoting Hooker, Milton and Dryden.^[11]

Timeline

• 1542 – lacking reverence for God.^[9] The OED's first quotation, of actions and sayings, is from 1585.^[2]
• 1594 – of persons.^[2]
• 1613 – lacking natural reverence or dutifulness, especially to parents.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Lacking piety or reverence for God or what is sacred; profane or wicked: an impious remark about the saints.^[9][12][2]
2. (rare) Lacking proper respect or dutifulness, especially towards parents: an impious daughter.^{[9][12][2][7]}

Word family

• impiously
• impiousness

Related words

• impiety
• pious
• piety
• pity

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins