incomplete

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɪn.kəmˈpliːt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English incompleet, borrowed from Old French incomplette and directly Late Latin incomplētus,^[2][3][4] from in- (“not”) and complētus (“filled, finished”) (see complete).^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Not fully formed or finished: about 1380 in the OED, probably 1384 in Wycliffe's writings in Barnhart, the late 14th century in Etymonline.^[6][2][5]

Semantic evolution

Technical uses include the botanical incomplete flower, lacking one of the usual parts (1760),^[6] and in logic and mathematics a formal system that contains true statements it cannot prove, from 1932.^[6] In American football an incomplete pass is one not caught.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – incomplete.^[6]
• 1656 – to incomplete (verb, rare).^[6]
• 1760 – incomplete flower.^[6]
• 1932 – incomplete system (logic).^[6]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Not complete or finished; lacking a part.
2. (logic, mathematics) Of a formal system, containing statements that can be neither proved nor disproved within it.
3. (American football) Of a pass, not caught.

Word family

• incompletely
• incompleteness
• subincomplete
• incomplete dominance
• incomplete flower

Related words

• incompletion
• complete
• completion
• replete

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin