inaudible

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin inaudībilis,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from in- (“not”) and audībilis (“audible”),^[2][3][6] from audiō (“to hear”); see audible.^[2] The OED compares Italian inaudibile, recorded by Florio in 1598.^[6] Classical Latin had inaudītus (“unheard, unheard of”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Not fit to be heard: in a text about the Yorkists dated 1459, in a copy of about 1475, which calls their governance “to inaudible to be rehersed”.^[7][2] The Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford also date the word to late Middle English.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The Middle English sense, "unfit to be heard", is not recorded later.^[7][2] The word reappeared about 1600 in its modern sense, "impossible to hear":^[2][3] the OED's first record is Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well, in "Th' inaudible and noiseless foot of Time",^[6][5] the line Johnson (1755) quoted for "not to be heard; void of sound".^[8]

Timeline

• 1459 – not fit to be heard (in a copy of about 1475).^[7]
• 1601 – not able to be heard; the OED's first record is from Shakespeare, before 1616.^[3][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not loud enough to be heard; not audible: Her reply was almost inaudible over the noise of the traffic.^[9][3][6]

Word family

• inaudibility
• inaudibly
• inaudibleness

Related words

• audible
• audio
• audience

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c 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 d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c 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. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins