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indescribable

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Etymology and origin of the English word indescribable

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1726 More words from the 18th century
Ultimate origins
Old English in-English describable

Pronunciation

  • /ɪndɪˈskɹaɪbəbl̩/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English in- + describable, with the negative prefix.[2][3][4][5][6] The Shorter Oxford dates describable only to the early 19th century, later than indescribable,[3] but the revised OED records it from 1655.[2] Old English had unāsecgendlic in the same sense.[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

That cannot be described: 1726, in Etymonline's dating.[4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates it to 1751,[5] and the OED's first record is from 1785, in T. Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, for something too great to be described.[2] Dictionary.com dates it to 1785–95.[6]

Semantic evolution

The OED separates what is beyond description because it is too great, beautiful or terrible (1785) from what does not allow an exact description, vague or indefinite (1794).[2][3] As a noun, indescribables was humorous slang, at first euphemistic, for trousers, from 1794,[2] like inexpressibles and unmentionables;[2][4] Etymonline dates it to 1819 and says it was colloquial in England for a generation or so, quoting a London magazine of 1824 on "military indescribables".[4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged labels this sense archaic slang.[5] The general noun, things of which no description can be given, follows in 1839, in Marryat.[2]

Timeline

  • 1726 – that cannot be described.[4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the adjective to 1751.[5]
  • 1785 – too great or beautiful to be described.[2]
  • 1794 – that cannot be described exactly; vague.[2]
  • 1794 – noun, indescribables, trousers.[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1819.[4]
  • 1839 – noun, things that cannot be described.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Too great, intense, beautiful or terrible to be put into words: The view from the summit was indescribable.[8][5][2][3]
  2. That cannot be described exactly; vague or indefinite: an indescribable unease.[5][2][3]

Noun

  1. Something that cannot be described.[5][3][2]
  2. (archaic, slang) indescribables: trousers.[5][2][3]

Word family

  • indescribability
  • indescribably
  • indescribableness

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  7. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
Cite this entry

“Indescribable.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/indescribable. Accessed 13 Nov. 2026.

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