Etymologically
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incompetence

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Pronunciation

  • /ɪnˈkɒm.pə.təns/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French incompétence,[2][3][4][5] recorded in French from 1549, in Robert Estienne,[2] and formed there from in- (“not”) and compétence, after incompétent.[2][3][4] Etymonline takes it as borrowed from or modelled on the French word.[6] The French noun goes back to Latin competentia (“meeting together, agreement”), from the present participle of competō.[6][2] Dictionary.com instead treats it as a variant of the older English form incompetency, with a different suffix;[7] that form is recorded from 1611, in Cotgrave.[2][6] The adjective incompetent is older still, from 1595.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Inadequacy or insufficiency, a sense now obsolete: 1663, in J. Heath's Flagellum.[2][6] Merriam-Webster also dates the word to 1663,[3] and Dictionary.com to 1655–65.[7]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, inadequacy of a thing, was soon replaced by the personal one, lack of the ability or qualification a task needs, recorded from before 1716 in Robert South's sermons.[2][6] In the 19th century the word was taken up in two specialised fields: in logic for the faultiness of a conclusion (before 1856, in William Hamilton's lectures)[2] and in medicine for the failure of an organ, especially a valve or sphincter, to work properly (1876).[2][3] Merriam-Webster also records a legal sense, lack of the legal fitness or qualification to do something.[3]

Timeline

  • 1611 – the older form incompetency.[2][6]
  • 1663 – inadequacy, insufficiency (now obsolete).[2][3]
  • before 1716 – lack of the needed ability or qualification.[2][6]
  • before 1856 – in logic, faultiness of a conclusion.[2]
  • 1876 – in medicine, inability of an organ or valve to function properly.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Lack of the skill, ability or knowledge needed to do something properly: The inquiry blamed the collapse on the manager's incompetence.[3][2][4]
  2. (law) Lack of the legal qualification or fitness to do something.[3]
  3. (medicine) Failure of an organ, especially a heart valve or a sphincter, to work adequately.[3][2]

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House