irreparable

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English irreparable, also irreperable,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French irreparable, recorded in French from the 12th century,^[4][5][6] and directly borrowed from Latin irreparābilis (“that cannot be repaired or recovered”).^[7][2][8][4] The Anglo-Norman form is recorded from 1360.^[9] The Latin adjective is formed from in- (“not”) in its assimilated form, and reparābilis (“that can be repaired or restored”),^[10][5][4] from reparō (“to restore”), the source of repair.^[7][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

That cannot be remedied or made good: 1412, in Hoccleve's De Regimine Principum, where death has done "harme irreparable".^[2][7] The OED dates this record before 1420,^[5] and Etymonline gives the early 15th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century the word appears mostly in official documents, the Rolls of Parliament and the records of the Privy Council, of harm, loss and damage that could not be undone.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "not to be recovered; not to be repaired", quoting Shakespeare's The Tempest and Milton,^[11] and Webster (1828) gave the two senses "that cannot be repaired or mended" and "that cannot be recovered".^[12] Use of a physical thing that cannot be repaired is recorded from 1772, but the OED and the Shorter Oxford mark it as rare or perhaps obsolete.^[5][13] A form irrepairable, made from the English verb repair, was used in the 16th and 17th centuries but seldom later.^[4]

Timeline

• 1412 – that cannot be remedied or made good.^[2][7]
• early 18th century – the noun irreparableness.^[13]
• mid 18th century – the noun irreparability.^[13]
• 1772 – of a physical thing, that cannot be repaired.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Impossible to repair, put right or remedy; beyond repair: The flood did irreparable damage to the archive.^[3][14][5]
2. (rare) Of a physical object, that cannot be mended.^[5][13]

Word family

• irreparability
• irreparably
• irreparableness

Related words

• reparable
• repair
• repairable

Usage notes

Etymonline quotes Fowler (1926) on the related reparable: it is used almost only of abstract things such as loss, injury or a mistake, while repairable is used chiefly of material things that need mending.^[4] Collins lists irrepairable as a variant of irreparable.^[14]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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. ^ Webster, Noah (1828), An American Dictionary of the English Language, New York: S. Converse
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins