impassable

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *né

Proto-Indo-European *n̥-

Proto-Italic *n̥-

Latin in-bor.

Middle English in-

English im-

Proto-Indo-European *peth₂-der.

Proto-Italic *passus

Latin passus

Proto-Italic *-āzi

▲

Latin -ereinflu.

Latin -āre

Vulgar Latin *passāre

Old French passerbor.

Middle English passen

English pass

Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom

Proto-Italic *-ðlom

Proto-Italic *-ðlis

Latin -bilis

Latin -ābilis

Old French -ablebor.

Middle English -able

English -able

English impassable

From im- + pass + -able.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɑː.sə.bəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

impassable (comparative more impassable, superlative most impassable)

1. (of a route, terrain, etc.) Incapable of being passed over, crossed, or negotiated.
   • 1949 November and December, “Notes and News: Festiniog and Welsh Highland Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 408:

     At the same time, the encroachment of vegetation proceeds apace, and broom and brambles have already made portions of the line impassable, even on foot.

   • 1960 December, “Talking of Trains: The railway and the Devon floods”, in Trains Illustrated, page 709:

     [...] at Cowley Bridge Junction, east of Exeter, both lines were impassable from about 1.30 p.m.—the first flooding of the junction for 36 years—and by the evening the water had risen two-thirds of the way up the platforms at St. Davids as Exeter faced its worst flooding for 60 years.

   • 1987 October, Charles E. Cobb, Jr., “North Carolina's Outer Banks”, in National Geographic, volume 172, number 4, page 506:

     When the beach became impassable, as at high tide, they drove a sandy track behind the dunes.

2. (of an obstacle) Incapable of being overcome or surmounted.
3. (of currency) Not usable as legal tender.

Synonyms

• unpassable

Derived terms

• impassability
• impassableness
• impassably

Translations

incapable of being passed over, crossed, or negotiated

• Azerbaijani: keçilməz
• Bulgarian: непроходим (bg) (neprohodim)
• Catalan: infranquejable
• German: unpassierbar (de), unüberwindbar (de), unüberwindlich (de)
• Greek: αδιάβατος (el) (adiávatos)

  Ancient Greek: ἀδιάβατος (adiábatos), ἀπόρευτος (apóreutos), ἄπορος (áporos)

• Hungarian: járhatatlan (hu), áthatolhatatlan (hu), áthághatatlan (hu)
• Icelandic: ófært
• Latin: invius
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: uframkommelig, ufremkommelig

  Nynorsk: uframkomeleg, uframkommeleg

• Old English: weġlēas
• Polish: nieprzejezdny (by car), nieprzekraczalny
• Romanian: impracticabil (ro)
• Spanish: infranqueable (es)
• Turkish: geçilmez

  Ottoman Turkish: صارپ (sarp)

See also

• impassible

French

Etymology

From im- +‎ passable.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.pa.sabl/

Adjective

impassable (plural impassables)

1. impassable

Further reading

• “impassable”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012