inhuman

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English inhumain,^[2][3] borrowed from Middle French inhumain^[3][4][5] and directly borrowed from Latin inhūmānus (“inhuman, savage, cruel, rude, uncultured”),^[6][7][4][8] formed from in- (“not”) and hūmānus (“human”).^[7][8][9] The OED treats it as a borrowing from Latin, modelled in its earliest examples on the French word,^[7] which the Anglo-Norman Dictionary records from 1435.^[10] Dictionary.com takes the modern word as a fresh borrowing from Latin that replaced the late Middle English form.^[5] It is the negative of human, and until the 18th century it was usually spelled inhumane (see inhumane).^[6][7][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cruel: 1461, inhumayne, in the Rolls of Parliament, of the "horrible, detestable, cruell, and inhumayne tyrannye" done to King Richard.^[2][3] The OED's first record is 1481, in Caxton's translation of the Siege and Conquest of Jerusalem, of persons lacking natural kindness or pity.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word was first used of people and then, from 1490, of their actions and conduct, meaning brutal or barbarous.^[7] The stress was at first on the last syllable, as in French, but by the end of the 16th century verse already distinguished inˈhuman from inhuˈmane, though without a difference in meaning; the spelling inhumane stayed almost universal until after 1700.^[7] Once the spelling inhuman came in, inhumane became rare, and 18th-century dictionaries such as Johnson's recognized only inhuman as the negative.^[7] Johnson (1755) defined it as "barbarous; savage; cruel; uncompassionate".^[11] The wider sense "not human in nature or form" is recorded from 1568,^[7] and the 20th century added "cold, impersonal, mechanical" and "unfit for human beings", as of living conditions.^[4] A noun meaning a brutal person was used rarely from 1653 to 1755.^[7]

Timeline

• 1461 – cruel, in the form inhumayne.^[2][3]
• 1481 – of persons, lacking natural kindness or pity.^[7]
• 1490 – of actions or conduct, brutal, barbarous.^[7]
• 1568 – not of the ordinary human type in form or nature.^[7]
• 1653 – noun, a brutal person (obsolete by 1755).^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Lacking mercy, pity or kindness; cruel, brutal: the inhuman treatment of the prisoners.^[4][12][7]
2. Lacking warmth; cold, impersonal or mechanical: He answered with an almost inhuman calm.^[4]
3. Not fit for or suited to human beings: They worked in inhuman heat.^[4]
4. Not human in form, nature or kind.^[12][7]

Word family

• inhumanly
• inhumanness

Related words

• human
• humane
• inhumane
• inhumanity
• humanity

Usage notes

Collins gives inhumane as another form for the sense "cruel, lacking humane feelings",^[12] and Dictionary.com lists inhuman and inhumane among words that are often confused.^[5] Weekley calls the word the opposite of humane, and cites Burns's line "Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn".^[13]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
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 c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray