insufferable

Etymology

It is formed from English in- + sufferable,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} and it may also be borrowed from French insouffrable, a French word now obsolete or dialectal.^[2][5][7] Barnhart prefers a borrowing, perhaps through Middle French insouffrable, from Medieval Latin insufferabilis, allowing that the English word was sometimes formed from in- and sufferable;^[8] the Middle English Dictionary derives it from sufferable and compares the Medieval Latin.^[9] The base goes back to Latin sufferō (“to endure”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Unbearably painful, intolerable: before 1425, in the Middle English Chauliac, of twisting pains.^[9][8] Etymonline dates it to the early 15th century,^[3] while the OED's first quotation is from Bellenden's translation of Livy (1533).^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant simply "not to be endured", of pain, cold or heat.^[9][2][10] Johnson (1755) defined it as intolerable or insupportable, "intense beyond endurance", quoting Brown's Vulgar Errours on insufferable cold.^[10] It is now used especially of people who are unbearably arrogant or conceited, a use the Shorter Oxford illustrates from P. G. Wodehouse.^[5][4]

Timeline

• before 1425 – intolerable, unbearable, of pain.^[9][8]
• 1533 – that cannot be borne or endured.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Too unpleasant to be endured; intolerable: The heat in the attic was insufferable.^[11][4][2]
2. Hard to bear because of arrogance or a show of superiority: After the promotion he became insufferable.^[4][5]

Word family

• insufferableness
• insufferably

Related words

• suffer
• sufferable
• unsufferable

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b c d 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)
10. ^ 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.
11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins