inferiority

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Medieval Latin inferioritas,^[2][3][4][5] formed from Latin inferior (“lower”) and the suffix -itās, the source of English -ity.^[6][2][3] The OED notes that the Latin form is not attested, and compares Spanish inferioridad (1599), Italian inferiorità (1611) and French infériorité (1642), the last two recorded later than the English word.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged allows a borrowing from either Middle French or Medieval Latin,^[6] and Johnson derived it from French.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The condition of being lower in rank, quality, degree or amount: 1599, in Minsheu's edition of Percival's Spanish–English dictionary.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the 1590s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined it as a "lower state of dignity or value".^[7] A sense of lower position in space, recorded from 1833 in Lyell's geology, stayed rare.^[2] The word gained a new, psychological use in the compound inferiority complex, an unrealistic sense of inadequacy, which the Shorter Oxford places in Adlerian psychology.^[5] The revised OED dates the compound to 1916,^[2] Etymonline to 1919,^[3] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged and the 1989 edition of the OED to 1922;^[6][8] Merriam-Webster takes it as probably a translation of German Minderwertigkeitskomplex.^[6] In general use it now often means simply a feeling of being worse than others, or a shared sense of cultural or national inferiority.^[6]

Timeline

• 1599 – the state of being lower in rank, quality or degree.^[2]
• 1833 – lower position in space (rare).^[2]
• 1916 – inferiority complex.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The state or condition of being inferior, lower in rank, quality or value: The team never accepted its inferiority to the champions.^[6][9][2]
2. A feeling of being inferior to others; lack of self-assurance.^[6][5]
3. (rare) Lower position in space.^[2]

Word family

• inferiority complex

Related words

• inferior
• superiority

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. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ 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.
8. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins