inclement

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin inclēmēns (“harsh, unmerciful”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed from in- (“not”) and clēmēns (“mild, calm”), the source of clement.^[2][3][4][6] Etymonline, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English also allow French inclément as a source,^[4][7][8] which the OED records in French from 1564.^[2] Barnhart considers instead that it may be a back-formation from inclemency (1559), itself from Middle French inclémence and Latin inclēmentia.^[9] Klein explains clēmēns as an old participle meaning "inclined", from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlei- (“to lean, incline”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Unmerciful, pitiless or harsh, of a person: 1621, in J. Molle's translation of P. Camerarius, Liuing Librarie.^[2][3] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1615–25,^[5] while Etymonline and Barnhart place it in the 1660s.^[4][9]

Semantic evolution

The weather sense is first recorded in Milton's Paradise Lost (1667), in the line "Th' inclement seasons, rain, ice, hail and snow".^[2][9][10] It usually refers to cold or stormy weather, and only rarely to severe heat or drought.^[2] Johnson (1755) still defined the word only as "unmerciful; unpitying; void of tenderness; harsh", quoting Milton and Pope, and in 1773 added that it was used more often of things than of men.^[10] The personal sense died out in the mid-19th century, the OED's last quotation being from 1861;^[2][7] Merriam-Webster calls it archaic.^[11] Weekley found the limitation to weather curious.^[12][4]

Timeline

• 1621 – unmerciful, harsh, pitiless (obsolete by 1861).^[2][3]
• 1667 – of weather or climate, severe, cold or stormy, in Milton's Paradise Lost.^[2][9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of weather or climate, not mild; cold, wet or stormy: Walkers were warned of inclement conditions on the pass.^{[13][3][14][2]}
2. (archaic) Harsh, severe or unmerciful.^{[11][3][14][13]} The OED treats this sense as obsolete (1621–1861).^[2]

Word family

• inclemency
• inclemently
• inclementness

Related words

• clement
• clemency

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin