incongruous

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin incongruus (“inconsistent, not suitable”) with the English ending -ous,^[2][3][4] the Latin adjective being formed from in- (“not”) and congruus (“fit, suitable”).^[3][5][6][2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged calls the adjective Late Latin.^[7] The second part is from congruō (“to agree, correspond”),^[4] which Etymonline divides into com- (“with, together”) and a lost verb *gruere (“to fall, rush”), traced by de Vaan to Proto-Indo-European *ghr(e)uho- (“to rush in”).^[3] Johnson explained it instead by French incongru, and by the negative prefix with congruous.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Disagreeing in character, out of keeping: 1611, in Cotgrave's French–English dictionary.^[2][7] Etymonline dates it to the 1610s.^[3] The noun incongruity is older, from the 1530s.^[3][9]

Semantic evolution

The first uses in the OED concern things that do not agree with one another, and the sense of being unbecoming or out of place in the circumstances follows in 1623, in Cockeram's dictionary.^[2] From 1616 to 1678 it was used for a breach of grammatical agreement, and in 1656 a translation of Hobbes applied it in geometry to what does not coincide when superposed; both uses have died out.^[2] The sense of having parts that do not fit together dates from 1658.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave "unsuitable; not fitting" and "inconsistent; absurd".^[8] A new mathematical use, for numbers that are not congruent, is recorded in Webster's dictionary of 1864.^[2]

Timeline

• 1611 – disagreeing in character, out of keeping.^[2][7]
• 1616 – in grammar, violating the rules of agreement (until 1678).^[2]
• 1623 – unsuitable, inappropriate to the circumstances.^[2]
• 1656 – in geometry, not coinciding when superposed.^[2]
• 1658 – having parts that do not agree; not self-consistent.^[2]
• 1864 – of numbers, not congruent.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Out of place; not suited to the surroundings or the circumstances: The dinner jacket looked incongruous at the beach picnic.^[10][7][11]
2. Not in harmony with something, or with each other; inconsistent: a diet incongruous with her training plan.^[7][2][11]
3. Made up of parts that do not fit together; discordant: an incongruous mix of modern furniture and medieval armour.^[10][7][2]
4. Of two numbers: not congruent, giving different remainders when divided by the modulus.^[2]
5. (obsolete, 1616–78) In grammar: breaking the rules of concord.^[2][11]

Word family

• incongruously
• incongruousness

Related words

• incongruence
• incongruent
• incongruity
• congruous
• congruent

References

1. ^ a b 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ 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.
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press