Etymologically
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invincible

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ɪnˈvɪn.sə.bəl/, /ɪnˈvɪn.sɪ.bəl/[1]
  • US: /ɪnˈvɪn.sə.bəl/, /ɪnˈvɪn.sɪ.bəl/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English invincible,[2] borrowed from Old French invincible (“unconquerable”), recorded in French from the 14th century,[3][4][5] and directly borrowed from Latin invincibilis (“unconquerable”),[4][2][6][7] which Dictionary.com and MWU take as Late Latin.[8][9] Barnhart has it borrowed from Latin, possibly through Middle French.[10][6] The Latin adjective is formed from in- (“not”) and vincibilis (“conquerable”),[3][5][11][12] from vincō (“to conquer, overcome”).[3][4][11] The Oxford Dictionary of English notes that the English word is older than vincible.[13] It is related to victor and vanquish.[14][15][16]

Earliest recorded meaning

That cannot be conquered, of fighters, fortresses and the like: 1412–20, in John Lydgate's Troy Book, of Hector.[3][2][6]

Semantic evolution

The word passed early from armed combat to figurative use: from 1482 it described people in spiritual or mental struggle and obstacles, habits or conditions that cannot be overcome.[3][17] The theological phrase invincible ignorance, ignorance that a person has no means of removing, renders the scholastic Latin ignorantia invincibilis of Thomas Aquinas and is recorded from 1530.[3][4] From 1509 to 1617 the word could also mean "unsurpassable, that cannot be excelled", a sense now obsolete.[3][17] In 1600 Shakespeare apparently used it by mistake for invisible, in Henry IV, Part 2.[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "insuperable; unconquerable; not to be subdued".[18] As a noun it meant one who is invincible from 1640,[3][4] and since 1883 also a member of the Invincibles, an Irish secret society that grew out of the Fenians and carried out assassinations.[3][17] Etymonline notes that the Spanish fleet of 1588 was called the Invincible Armada.[4]

Timeline

  • 1412–20 – unconquerable, of combatants, in Lydgate's Troy Book.[3][2]
  • 1482 – figurative, of people, obstacles and habits.[3]
  • 1509 – unsurpassable (obsolete by 1617).[3]
  • 1530 – invincible ignorance.[3]
  • 1600 – apparently in error for invisible, in Shakespeare.[3]
  • 1640 – noun, one who is invincible.[3]
  • 1883 – noun, a member of the Irish Invincibles.[3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Impossible to defeat or conquer; unbeatable: an invincible fleet.[9][19][3]
  2. Impossible to overcome or get rid of; insuperable: an invincible distrust of strangers.[19][9][3]
  3. invincible ignorance: (theology) ignorance that a person has no means of overcoming.[3][4]

Noun

  1. One who is invincible.[9][3]
  2. (history) A member of the Invincibles, an Irish secret society of the early 1880s.[3]

Word family

  • invincibility
  • invincibly
  • invincibleness
  • uninvincible

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  9. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  11. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  14. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  15. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  16. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  17. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  18. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  19. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins