Etymograph

English

incompetent

Incompetent comes from Latin incompetēns ‘insufficient’, and goes back to competēns ‘meeting, coinciding, agreeing’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcompetēns‘meeting, coinciding, agreeing’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEincompetēns‘insufficient’
  3. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEincompetentem
  4. Frenchc. 1600–presentincompétent
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1915incompetent

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcompetēns‘meeting, coinciding, agreeing’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEincompetēns‘insufficient’
  3. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEincompetentem
  4. Frenchc. 1600–presentincompétent
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1915incompetent

Earliest quotation: 1915, Henry Smith Williams, Edward Huntington Williams: “But besides these incompetents, there was always a train…”

Formed from in- + competent

Proto-Indo-European *h₁én ‘in’

Proto-Germanic *in ‘into’

English in-

Proto-Indo-European *peth₂- ‘to spread out’

…

Latin competō ‘coincide, be equal to, be capable of’

Latin competens

Old French competent

Middle English competent

English competent

Linked words

through Latin competēns ‘meeting, coinciding, agreeing’

competence, competency, 2 more

Today it means

adj Lacking the degree of ability and responsibility necessary to do a task successfully.

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

Etymograph / Latin competēns / incompetent

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