indomitable

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin indomitābilis (“untamable”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed from in- (“not”), domitō (“to tame”) and the suffix -ābilis,^[7][8][9] the verb being the frequentative of domō (“to tame, subdue”),^[3][4][5] which the American Heritage Dictionary refers to Proto-Indo-European *demə-.^[5] Collins and Dictionary.com derive the Late Latin adjective from indomitus (“untamed”).^[10][11] It replaced an earlier Middle English indomable (“untamable”), recorded from before 1500, from Old French indomable and directly from Latin indomābilis.^[4] Weekley thought the English word was made after French indomptable.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

That cannot be tamed: 1634, in Thomas Herbert's A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile.^[2][4][7]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense "untamable", of animals, was soon out of use: the Shorter Oxford records it only in the mid 17th century, and the OED marks it as probably obsolete.^[9][2] Barnhart first finds it in Scott's The Fair Maid of Perth (1828),^[4] where the OED sees the word, used of temper, passing into the new sense,^[2] and the OED's first quotation of it applied to people is from Carlyle in 1830.^[2][3] It is usually a term of approval.^[2]

Timeline

• 1634 – that cannot be tamed.^[2][4]
• 1828 – of temper, unyielding.^[2][4]
• 1830 – of people, not to be overcome by difficulty or opposition; stubbornly resolute.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Impossible to subdue or defeat; stubbornly resolute: Her indomitable spirit carried the team through the long winter.^{[5][10][7][2]}
2. Untamable (obsolete).^[2][9]

Word family

• indomitability
• indomitably
• indomitableness

Related words

• domitable
• tame
• daunt

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray