inglorious

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Latin inglōriōsus (“without fame, unhonoured”), a word found in Pliny,^[2][3][4] formed from in- (“not”) and glōriōsus, which comes from glōria (“glory”).^[3][2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged, Webster's Third and Dictionary.com name inglōrius instead,^[5][6][7] and the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English take that adjective with the suffix -ous added.^[8][9] Etymonline and Partridge analyse it as formed from English in- + glorious,^[4][10] which the Shorter Oxford also allows.^[8] The OED compares French inglorieux, which it reports from the 14th century, after Littré.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of actions or a way of life, bringing no glory or honour, and hence shameful: 1573, in G. Harvey's Letter-book.^[2][5] Etymonline gives the 1570s and Dictionary.com the range 1565–75,^[4][7] while the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English say mid 16th century.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

English first recorded the word for what brings disgrace, and picked up the classical sense "without fame, obscure" less than twenty years later, in Spenser (1591).^[4][2] That second sense is now rare, according to the OED,^[2][8] but it is the sense of Gray's "Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest".^[8][5][4] Johnson (1755) gave a single definition, void of honour, mean, without glory, and quoted Milton's "Inglorious life with servitude".^[11] The shameful sense appears in Macaulay's "an inglorious, unprofitable, and interminable war".^[8] The adverb ingloriously is recorded from the late 16th century and the noun ingloriousness from the mid 17th.^[8]

Timeline

• 1573 – of actions or a way of life, bringing no honour; shameful, ignominious.^[2][5]
• 1591 – not famous, obscure, humble.^[2] Etymonline likewise dates it to the 1590s.^[4]
• 1788 – without the glory of something, in Gibbon (rare, now obsolete).^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Bringing shame or no honour; ignominious or disgraceful: an inglorious retreat from the hill.^[12][5][2]
2. (rare) Not famous; unknown or obscure.^[12][2][8]

Word family

• ingloriously
• ingloriousness

Related words

• glorious
• glory

References

1. ^ 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 Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins