intractable

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin intractābilis (“not to be handled, unmanageable”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed from in- (“not”) and tractābilis (“manageable”),^[2][5][4] the source of tractable.^[7][5] The Latin adjective tractābilis is from tractō (“to handle, manage”),^[8][3] a frequentative of trahō (“to draw”).^[8] Etymonline allows a source in French intractable, recorded from the 15th century,^[3] which the OED gives only as a comparison.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rough, stormy: before 1500 according to Barnhart, about 1500 according to Etymonline.^[7][3] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English also date the word to the late 15th century,^[6][9] while the OED's first quotation is from 1545, in G. Joye's Exposicion of Daniel, of people not to be guided.^[2]

Semantic evolution

After the early sense "rough, stormy", the word came to mean "not manageable".^[3][7] The OED records it first of people and animals that cannot be guided or tamed (1545), then of things that cannot be worked or brought into the desired state (1607, in Topsell's book of beasts);^[2] the Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the sense of persons to 1531.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as "ungovernable; violent; stubborn; obstinate" and "unmanageable; furious".^[10] Modern dictionaries also apply it to problems, pain and illnesses that are hard to solve, relieve or cure.^[11][4] The noun, an unmanageable person, is recorded from 1883.^[2][4]

Timeline

• before 1500 – rough, stormy.^[7][3]
• 1545 – of people and animals, not to be guided; unmanageable, stubborn.^[2][7]
• 1607 – of things, hard to work or deal with.^[2]
• 1883 – noun, an unmanageable person.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Hard to govern, manage or control; stubborn: an intractable mule.^[4][11][2]
2. Of a problem, illness or pain: hard to solve, relieve or cure.^[11][4]
3. Hard to shape or work: an intractable alloy.^[11][4]

Noun

1. A person who is intractable.^[4][2]

Word family

• intractability
• intractably

Related words

• tractable
• treat
• tract
• retract

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 c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins