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unresponsive

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Etymology and origin of the English word unresponsive

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1668 Bishop J. Wilkins, An Essay Towards a Real Character More words from the 17th century
Ultimate origin
Latin respondeō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
English responsive
English unresponsive

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˌʌnrɪˈspɒntsɪv/, /ˌʌnrɪˈspɒnsɪv/[1]
  • US: /ˌʌnrɪˈspɑːntsɪv/, /ˌʌnrɪˈspɑːnsɪv/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English un- + responsive.[2][3][4] Responsive is from Old French responsif and Late Latin respōnsīvus (“answering”), from the past participle stem of Latin respondeō (“to answer”).[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Unable to reply: 1668, in Bishop J. Wilkins's Essay Towards a Real Character.[2] Etymonline also dates this sense to the 1660s.[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, unable to answer, is recorded by the OED only in 1668 and is now obsolete;[2] the Shorter Oxford calls it long rare.[4] The modern sense, not reacting to an action, touch or question, matches the sense of responsive "responding readily to influence", recorded from 1762.[3][2] The OED first records it in 1768, in the Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser,[2][5] where the 1989 edition and Etymonline had 1775.[6][3] The adverb unresponsively and the noun unresponsiveness follow in the 19th century.[6][4]

Timeline

  • 1668 – unable to reply (obsolete).[2][3]
  • 1768 – not responsive; not reacting to an action or touch.[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Not reacting or responding to an action, a question, a stimulus or a suggestion: The patient was unresponsive when the paramedics arrived.[7][5][2][8]
  2. (obsolete, 1668) Unable to reply; speechless.[2][4]

Word family

  • unresponsively
  • unresponsiveness

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Cite this entry

“Unresponsive.” Etymologically, 8 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/unresponsive. Accessed 9 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·