incurable

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English incurable,^[2] borrowed from Old French incurable,^[3][4][5][2] recorded in Anglo-Norman from the second quarter of the 13th century,^[6] and perhaps also directly borrowed from Late Latin incūrābilis.^{[7][8][9][10]} The Latin word is formed from in- (“not”) and cūrābilis (“curable”),^[3][4][5][7] from cūrō (“to cure”).^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

That cannot be cured or healed by medicine: before 1340, in R. Rolle's Psalter.^[3] Etymonline dates it to the mid-14th century,^[4] and the MED's first quotation is from Chaucer's Monk's Tale, about 1375: "With invisible wounde, ay incurable".^[2]

Semantic evolution

The Anglo-Norman word already applied both to a disease or wound and to a moral fault that could not be rooted out.^[6] English had the second use by 1377: Langland's Piers Plowman (1377) has the transferred sense, of something beyond remedy or reformation,^[3] and the MED lists an incurable penalty, damnation or vice.^[2] Chaucer and Gower each used the word once,^[11] and the Wycliffite Bible's "wound incurable" translates Latin insanabilis.^[2] As a noun, a person who cannot be cured, it is recorded from 1652, in Howell's translation of Giraffi.^[3][4] Swift's phrase, quoted by Johnson (1755), has incurables being taken into a hospital,^[12] and Kipling has a hospital for Incurables.^[8] A further use describes someone as being a certain kind of person beyond all hope of change, as with busybodies or romantics.^[7][13]

Timeline

• before 1340 – that cannot be cured.^[3]
• 1377 – figurative, not admitting remedy or reform.^[3]
• 1652 – noun, a person with an incurable disease.^[3][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Impossible to cure: She was told that the condition was incurable.^[13][7][3]
2. Beyond remedy or correction: his incurable habit of arriving late.^[7][3]
3. Being a certain kind of person beyond any possibility of change: an incurable gossip.^[7][13]

Noun

1. A person with an incurable disease, usually in the plural.^[13][7][3]

Word family

• incurability
• incurably

Related words

• cure
• curable

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins