indestructible

Etymology

It is formed from English in- + destructible,^[2][3][4][5] and the OED compares French indestructible, in use in the 17th and 18th centuries.^[2] The American Heritage Dictionary and Dictionary.com take it instead from Late Latin indēstrūctibilis, and Merriam-Webster calls that origin probable;^[6][7][8] the Late Latin word is formed from Latin in- (“not”) and dēstrūctibilis (“destructible”), from dēstrūctus, the past participle of dēstruō (“to tear down, destroy”).^[6][8] The verb is formed from dē- (“un-, down”) and struō (“to pile, build”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

That cannot be destroyed: 1674, in Robert Boyle's Excellency of Theology.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1667 and Dictionary.com to 1665–75,^[8][7] while Etymonline dates it to the early 15th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

By Etymonline's dates the negative is older than destructible itself, which it records only from 1704.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined the word as "not to be destroyed" and quoted Boyle: "Glass is so compact and firm a body, that it is indestructible by art or nature."^[5] The noun indestructibility followed in the late 17th century, and indestructibleness, the adverb indestructibly and the noun use "an indestructible thing" in the mid 19th.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 1674 – that cannot be destroyed.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1667.^[8]
• late 17th century – the noun indestructibility.^[3]
• mid 19th century – noun, an indestructible thing; the adverb indestructibly.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Impossible to destroy; very durable: an indestructible pair of walking boots.^{[6][9][8][10]}

Noun

1. An indestructible thing.^[2][3]

Word family

• indestructibility
• indestructibly
• indestructibleness

Related words

• destructible
• destroy
• destruction
• structure
• construct
• instruct

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ 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.
6. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press