English
inept
Inept comes from Latin ineptus ‘unsuitable’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEineptus‘unsuitable’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600inepte
- Englishearliest quotation 1954inept
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEineptus‘unsuitable’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600inepte
- Englishearliest quotation 1954inept
Earliest quotation: 1954, W. K. Wimsatt, The Verbal Icon: “The bungled phrase, the slipshod paragraph, the inept metaphor,…”
Every English word from Latin ineptus
Today it means
adj Not able to do something; not proficient; displaying incompetence.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin ineptus / inept