inexperience

Etymology

It is borrowed from French inexpérience, recorded in French in 1460,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} or directly borrowed from Late Latin inexperientia,^[3] a word used by Tertullian,^[2] formed from in- (“not”) and experientia (“experience, experiment”),^[2][3][7] the source of experience.^[3][6] Merriam-Webster takes the English word from Middle French.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lack of experience, or of the knowledge and skill that experience brings: 1595, in Samuel Daniel's First Fowre Bookes of the Ciuile Warres.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1590s, and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1598.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has stayed close to its first use, covering both a lack of practical skill in a particular work and a lack of knowledge of the world.^[2][7] Johnson (1755) defined it as want of experimental knowledge, quoting Milton's "Thy words at random argue thine inexperience" and Addison on the inexperience of the world.^[8]

Timeline

• 1595 – lack of experience or of the knowledge gained by experience.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Lack of experience, or of the knowledge and skill that come from it: The team's inexperience showed in the final minutes.^[9][7][2]
2. Lack of knowledge of the ways of the world.^[7][2]

Word family

• inexperienced

Related words

• experience
• experiment
• expert

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins