English
adynaton
Adynaton may come from Late Latin adynaton ‘impossibility’.
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEadynaton‘impossibility’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1953same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEadynaton‘impossibility’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1953same form
Earliest quotation: 1953, Ernst Robert Curtius, Topics: “In the realm of a very exclusive art adynata…”
The story
The word ἀδύνατος is derived from ἀ- (a-, the alpha privative, a prefix forming words having a sense opposite to the word or stem to which it is attached) + δῠνᾰτός (dŭnătós, “mighty, strong; possible, practical”) (from δῠ́νᾰμαι (dŭ́nămai, “to be able, capable; it can be, it is possible”) (from Proto-Indo-European *dewh₂- (‘to fit’)) + -τος (-tos, suffix forming verbal adjectives of possibility)).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *dewh₂- ‘to fit together’
down, beautiful, town, beauty, ben, teen, tool, bonus, beneficial, rebel, optimal, boo, optimism, beau, bonnie, tow, beneficiary, dun, boon, revel, bello, bene, bona, tine, bonny, dynamically, dynamo, thermodynamic, dynamical, taw, bauble, bellicose, dynastic, hydrodynamic, bonbon, psychodynamic, hemodynamic, biodynamic, 89 more
through Proto-Hellenic *dunamai
through Ancient Greek δύναμαι ‘to be able’
Today it means
noun A form of hyperbole that uses exaggeration so magnified as to express impossibility; an instance of such hyperbole.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Late Latin adynaton / adynaton