indeterminate

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English indeterminat,^[2][3] borrowed from Late Latin indēterminātus (“undefined, unlimited”),^{[4][5][2][6][7][8]} a word used by Tertullian.^[9] It is formed from in- (“not”) and dēterminātus (“defined, limited”), the past participle of dēterminō (“to enclose, bound, set limits to”), the source of determine and determinate.^[4][5][6][7] Compare French indéterminé, recorded in the 14th century in Oresme;^[9] Johnson took the English word from this French form.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Not marked or specified, of a star not marked on the astrolabe: in Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe, written in 1391 and copied about 1400.^{[9][7][11][12]} This sense is recorded only in late Middle English.^[12]

Semantic evolution

After Chaucer the word is not recorded again until 1603, when Philemon Holland's translation of Plutarch used it for something not fixed in extent, number or nature;^[9][2] the Oxford Dictionary of English accordingly dates it to the early 17th century.^[13] The senses "not fixed or established" (Bacon, 1626) and "not settled, left doubtful" (1656) followed,^[9] and Johnson (1755) defined it as unfixed, not defined, indefinite, quoting Newton's Opticks.^[10] Technical uses grew from the 18th century: in mathematics a quantity or problem with an unlimited number of values or solutions (1706), in botany a synonym of indefinite (1842), and in law the indeterminate sentence (1873), whose length depends on the prisoner's conduct.^[9] Of statements or words it has meant "vague, wanting in precision" since 1773, and in 1836 it was used of the will, acting freely and not determined by motives.^[9] Collins adds a sense in physics, of an effect that does not obey the law of causality.^[14]

Timeline

• 1391 – not marked or specified (obsolete).^[9][7]
• 1603 – not fixed in extent, number or nature; indefinite.^[9][2]
• 1626 – not fixed or established; uncertain.^[9]
• 1656 – not settled or decided; left doubtful.^[9]
• 1706 – in mathematics, of a quantity or problem.^[9]
• 1773 – of statements or words, vague.^[9]
• 1836 – acting freely, not determined by motives.^[9]
• 1842 – in botany, indefinite.^[9]
• 1873 – indeterminate sentence.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not fixed or known in extent, amount, number or nature; indefinite: a coat of some indeterminate shade of brown.^[14][2][9]
2. Not clear or precise; vague or inconclusive: an indeterminate answer.^[14][2][9]
3. Not settled or decided; impossible to predict or work out in advance.^[9][14]
4. (mathematics) Of an equation or problem: having an unlimited number of solutions; of an expression such as 0/0: having no defined value.^[14][9]
5. (botany) The same as indefinite in its botanical sense.^[14][9]
6. (physics) Of an effect: not obeying the law of causality.^[14]
7. indeterminate sentence: a prison sentence whose length depends on the prisoner's conduct.^[9]
8. (obsolete, c. 1400) Not marked or specified.^[9][12]

Word family

• indeterminately
• indeterminateness
• indetermination

Related words

• indeterminacy
• determinate
• determine
• terminate

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b 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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ 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.
11. ^ Skeat, W. W., ed. (1894), The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. VI: Glossarial Index, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins