intolerant

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin intolerāns (“not enduring, impatient; intolerable”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed from in- (“not”) and tolerāns (“enduring”), the present participle of tolerō (“to bear, endure”).^[2][3][7][5] Merriam-Webster allows a French source as well, French intolérant,^[8] and Johnson gave the word as French;^[9] the OED compares the French adjective, recorded in 1732 in the “Dictionnaire de Trévoux”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Unable or unwilling to endure something, followed by of: 1733, in Arbuthnot's essay on the effects of air on human bodies.^[2] Etymonline dates it to 1735,^[3] and Merriam-Webster to about 1735.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word began in a physical sense, of bodies or constitutions unable to bear something.^[2][3] Johnson (1755) gave only this meaning, "not able to endure", with a sentence from Arbuthnot on human bodies being "intolerant of excesses".^[9] The sense of refusing to tolerate opinions or practices different from one's own, especially in religion, appears in 1765, in Lowth's letter to Warburton, together with the noun, an intolerant person.^[2][3] From 1898 it was used in ecology of trees or other plants that cannot grow in deep shade.^[2][3] It can also describe a body that cannot digest or absorb a substance, as in lactose intolerant.^[8][7]

Timeline

• 1733 – unable or unwilling to endure something.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to 1735.^[3]
• 1765 – not tolerating opinions or practices different from one's own, especially in religion; also a noun, an intolerant person.^[2][3]
• 1898 – in ecology, of plants, unable to flourish in deep shade.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Unwilling to accept beliefs, opinions or ways of life different from one's own, especially in religion or politics: an intolerant regime.^[10][8][2]
2. Unable or unwilling to endure something, followed by of: a shrub intolerant of frost.^[10][8][2]
3. Unable to digest or absorb a particular substance properly, as in lactose intolerant.^[8][7]
4. (ecology) Of trees or other plants, unable to thrive in deep shade.^[2][3]

Noun

1. An intolerant person.^[8][2]

Word family

• intolerantly
• intolerantness

Related words

• intolerance
• tolerance
• tolerant
• intolerable
• tolerate
• toleration

Usage notes

Dictionary.com distinguishes it from bigoted and fanatical: intolerant stresses an active refusal to let others hold or practise beliefs different from one's own, bigoted an emotional attachment to one's own belief that makes one hostile to all others, and fanatical extreme or unreasonable action in keeping one's beliefs, without necessary reference to others.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ 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.
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins