unanswerable

English

Alternative forms

• unaunswerable (obsolete, rare)

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *né

Proto-Indo-European *n̥-

Proto-Germanic *un-

Proto-West Germanic *un-

Old English un-

Middle English un-

English un-

Proto-Indo-European *h₂ent-

Proto-Indo-European *-s

Proto-Indo-European *h₂éntsder.

Proto-Germanic *anda-

Proto-Indo-European *swer-der.

Proto-Germanic *swarjaną

Proto-Germanic *andaswarjaną

Old English andswerian

Middle English answeren

English answer

Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom

Proto-Italic *-ðlom

Proto-Italic *-ðlis

Latin -bilis

Latin -ābilis

Old French -ablebor.

Middle English -able

English -able

English answerable

English unanswerable

From un- + answerable.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ʌnˈɑːnsəɹəb(ə)l/

• Audio (Mid-Atlantic US):

  (file)

Adjective

unanswerable (comparative more unanswerable, superlative most unanswerable)

1. Not answerable; impossible to answer.

   Synonym: answerless

   Antonym: answerable

2. Impossible to dispute or rebut; irrefutable; conclusive.

   Synonym: indisputable

   Antonyms: disputable, inconclusive, refutable

   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     If I have not said much about it before, it was, of course, that the Professor's earnest desire was that no possible rumor of the unanswerable argument which we carried should be allowed to leak out until the moment came when his enemies were to be confuted.

   • 1926, Great Britain Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Economic Series, Issues 1-6‎^[1], H.M. Stationery Office, page 75:

     The map is never an unanswerable argument in transportation.

Related terms

• answerless
• unanswerability
• unanswerableness
• unanswerably

Translations

not answerable; impossible to answer

• Dutch: onbeantwoordbaar (nl), antwoordloos
• German: unbeantwortbar (de), antwortlos
• Irish: dofhreagartha
• Portuguese: irrespondível, sem resposta/respostas
• Romanian: iresponsabil (ro) m

impossible to dispute or rebut; irrefutable; conclusive

• Irish: dobhréagnaithe, dosháraithe
• Polish: bezsporny (pl)
• Portuguese: irrespondível, irrefutável (pt), irreplicável

Noun

unanswerable (plural unanswerables)

1. Something that cannot be answered.
   • 2005, Anupam Nagar, Recritiquing John Keats, page 55:

     These unanswerables are left open to the viewer's own construction by the sculptor.

References

• “unanswerable”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “unanswerable”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.