inaccessible

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French inaccessible and its source borrowed from Late Latin inaccessibilis (“unapproachable”), a Vulgate word,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed from in- (“not”) and accessibilis (“approachable”),^[2][3][6] itself from accessus (“a coming near, an approach”), the past participle of accēdō (“to approach, come near”).^[3][6] The MED gives only the Latin source,^[7] and Barnhart takes it as formed from English in- + accessible after the Latin word.^[8] The French word is recorded from the late 14th century;^[2] compare inaccesible (1490) and inaccessibile (before 1364).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Hard or impossible to reach or approach: probably before 1425, in a translation of Higden's Polychronicon, which describes Mount Horeb as "allemoste inaccessible" for its shrubs and broken stones.^[7][2][8] Etymonline dates it to the early 15th century,^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1545–55.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that unaccessible had the same sense earlier, about 1400;^[3] the MED records it before 1425 in the sense "impossible to perceive", but the OED treats it as the later word.^[7][2] The sense widened from places to things that cannot be obtained or used (1551) and, after 1583, to people who cannot be approached or influenced, a sense French had from 1580.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "not to be reached; not to be approached", quoting Shakespeare's "desart inaccessible".^[10] From 1670 a style or field of knowledge could be inaccessible, hard to understand, and a concept could be so in English writing on Kant in 1796.^[2] The mathematical sense, of a cardinal number, dates from 1935, after a French use of 1934, and the sense "not usable by disabled people" from 1959, first in the United States.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1425 – of a place, that cannot be reached or entered.^[8][7][2]
• 1551 – of a resource, not obtainable or available.^[2]
• 1583 – of a person, unapproachable; not open to influence.^[2]
• 1670 – of a style or subject, hard to understand.^[2]
• 1792 – noun, an inaccessible person or thing.^[2]
• 1935 – mathematics, of a cardinal number.^[2]
• 1959 – not usable by people with disabilities.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Impossible or very hard to reach, enter or get into: In winter the valley is inaccessible by road.^[11][4][2]
2. Not possible to obtain or use: Much of the archive is still inaccessible to researchers.^[4][2]
3. Of a person, hard to approach or get to know; not open to persuasion or feeling.^[4][2][5]
4. Hard to understand or appreciate; abstruse.^[2][4]
5. Of a building or service, not usable by people with disabilities.^[2]
6. (mathematics) Of an infinite cardinal number, not obtainable from smaller cardinals by the usual operations.^[2]

Noun

1. An inaccessible person or thing; chiefly in the plural.^[2]

Word family

• inaccessibility
• inaccessibly

Related words

• accessible
• access
• accede
• unaccessible

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w 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 c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d 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)
8. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins