impunity

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin impūnitās (“freedom from punishment”),^[2][3][4][5] and partly borrowed from Middle French impunité,^[6][7][8] which is recorded from the 14th century.^[6][2] The Latin noun is formed from impūnis (“unpunished”),^[6][2][9] which Merriam-Webster takes as a back-formation from the adverb impūne (“without punishment”),^[8][3] from in- (“not”) and poena (“penalty, punishment”),^[6][3][9][7] which is from Ancient Greek ποινή (poinḗ, “punishment”).^[3][9] The Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford also name pūniō (“to punish”).^[5][4] In Latin the noun could also mean rashness or inconsiderateness.^[6] It is related to penal, pain and punish.^[6][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Freedom from punishment or penalty: 1532, in Thomas More's Confutation of Tyndale's Answer.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined it as "freedom from punishment; exemption from punishment".^[11] A weaker sense, freedom from injury or loss as a result of what one does, is recorded from 1800 in the OED;^[2] Hoad, who glosses it "security", dates it to the 18th century.^[12] In current use the word appears mainly in the phrase with impunity, without suffering any penalty or bad consequence.^[4][13]

Timeline

• 1532 – exemption from punishment.^[2][7]
• 1800 – freedom from harm or loss as a result of one's actions; security.^[2] Hoad dates this sense to the 18th century.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. Freedom or exemption from punishment: War criminals must not be allowed impunity.^[8][13][2]
2. Freedom from harm, loss or other unpleasant consequences of one's actions.^[13][8][2]
3. with impunity: without being punished or suffering bad consequences: Drivers ignored the speed limit with impunity.^[13][4]

Related words

• punishment
• punition
• punitive
• immunity
• penal
• penalty
• pain
• punish

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
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 Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins