Etymograph

English

impalpable

Impalpable comes from Medieval Latin impalpabilis.

  1. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500impalpabilis
  2. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600impalpable
  3. Englishearliest quotation c. 1876same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500impalpabilis
  2. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600impalpable
  3. Englishearliest quotation c. 1876same form

Earliest quotation: c. 1876, Walt Whitman, The Sky—Days and Nights—Happiness: “What is happiness, anyhow? Is this one of its…”

Formed from in- + palpable

Proto-Indo-European *h₁én ‘in’

Proto-Germanic *in ‘into’

English in-

Latin palpō ‘to touch softly’

Latin palpābilis ‘that can be touched or felt, palpable’

Middle French palpable ‘touchable’

English palpable

Every English word from Medieval Latin impalpabilis

Today it means

adj Incapable of being touched or felt; incorporeal, intangible.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Medieval Latin impalpabilis / impalpable

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