unsatisfactory

Etymology

It is formed from English un- + satisfactory.^[2][3][4][5] Satisfactory is from Medieval Latin satisfactorius (“serving to make atonement; satisfying”),^[2][3] from satisfaciō (“to do enough, make amends”).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Not satisfactory: 1637–50, in John Row's Historie of the Kirk of Scotland.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1640s,^[3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged to about 1650,^[6] and Dictionary.com to 1630–40.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The base satisfactory had meant "expiatory, making atonement for sin" in the 15th century, and only from 1576 "adequate, sufficient", a sense Etymonline dates to the 1630s;^[2][3] the negative followed soon after.^[2][3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "not giving satisfaction; not clearing the difficulty", quoting Sir Thomas Browne's Vulgar Errours on Adam's "unsatisfactory reply".^[7] Unsatisfying, in the same sense, is recorded from the 1650s.^[3] In law, from 1907, a verdict or conviction is called unsatisfactory when it does not clearly satisfy the law and so leaves room for a miscarriage of justice; the first record is in the papers on the case of George Edalji.^[2]

Timeline

• 1637–50 – not satisfactory, not giving satisfaction.^[2]
• 1907 – in law, of a verdict or conviction: open to doubt.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not good enough; inadequate or unacceptable: His work this term has been unsatisfactory.^[8][9][6]
2. Not settling the question or problem: an unsatisfactory answer.^[6][7]
3. Not giving contentment or satisfaction.^[6][7]
4. (law) Of a verdict or conviction: not clearly satisfying the law, so that a miscarriage of justice is possible.^[2]

Word family

• unsatisfactorily
• unsatisfactoriness

Related words

• satisfactory
• satisfy
• unsatisfying

References

1. ^ 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 g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin