"I" Word Origins

immoralize

Origin

From immoral + -ize.

immorigerous

Origin

From im- + morigerous.

immort

Origin

Clipping of immortal.

immortal

Latin

From Latin immortalis, "not mortal" (im- + mortalis, from mors, "death").

immortalise

Origin

From immortal + -ise. Perhaps modelled on Middle French immortaliser.

immortality

Latin

From Old French immortalite, from Latin immortalitas; immortal plus -ity.

immovable

Middle English

From Middle English immevable, immoveable; im- + movable.

immune

Latin

From Middle French immun, from Latin immunis, "exempt from public service" (in- + munus, "service, duty").

immunisation

Origin

From French immunisation. Equivalent to immunise + -ation or immune + -isation.

immunity

Latin

From Old French immunite, from Latin immunitas; immune plus -ity.

immunization

Origin

From French immunisation. Coined by Albert Calmette. Equivalent to immunize + -ation or immune + -ization.

immunize

Origin

From French immuniser, equivalent to immune + -ize.

immure

Origin

From Middle English enmuren and Middle French emmurer, both from Old French enmurer, from Latin immūrō, from in- + mūrus (“wall”). Modern spelling is modelled after the Latin.

immutable

Latin

From Latin immutabilis, "unchangeable" (im- + mutable).

IMO

English

An initialism of 'in my opinion'.

Imogen

Scottish Gaelic

Believed to originate from a printing misprint of "Innogen" in early editions of Shakespeare's play, from Scottish Gaelic inghean ("girl, maiden").

imp

Old English

From Old English impian, "to graft" (originally referring to grafting a plant shoot), later coming to mean a child or offspring, and eventually a mischievous small creature.

impact

Latin · 1600

From Latin impactus, attested in English since the 1600s.

impactful

English

Formed from impact plus the suffix -ful.

impair

Origin

From Middle English impairen, empeiren, from Old French empeirier, from Early Medieval Latin impeiōrāre, from in- + Late Latin peiōrāre (“worsen”), from peiōrem (“worse”), comparative of malus (“bad”).

impairment

Old French

From Old French empairement; from impair plus -ment.

impala

Origin

Borrowed from Zulu impala.

impale

Medieval Latin

From Medieval Latin impalare, from Latin palus, "stake" — the same root as pale (a fence post).

impalpable

Origin

From Middle French impalpable, from Medieval Latin impalpabilis. See im- + palpable.

impanel

Origin

From Anglo-Norman empaneller.

impapyrated

Origin

From im- + papyrus + -ated.

impart

Late Latin

From Middle French impartir, from Late Latin impartire (im- + partire, "to divide, share").

impartation

Origin

From impart + -ation.

impartial

Middle French

From Middle French impartial, from im- + partial.

impartiality

Origin

From Middle French impartialité. By surface analysis, impartial + -ity = im- + partial + -ity.

impassable

Origin

From im- + pass + -able.

impasse

French

Borrowed from French impasse ("dead end"), from im- + passe.

impassion

Origin

From Italian impassionare. By surface analysis, im- + passion.

impassioned

Origin

From impassion plus -ed.

impassive

Origin

From im- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + passive (“which is, or is capable of being, acted on; (obsolete) which suffers, or may suffer, pain, death, etc.”, adjective).

impatience

Latin

From Old French impacience, from Latin impatientia.

impatient

Latin

From Old French impacient, from Latin impatiens.

impeach

Latin

From Anglo-Norman empecher, from Latin impedicare, "to fetter, entangle" — related to the French empecher, "to prevent".

impeachment

Latin

From Anglo-Norman empechement, ultimately from Latin impedicare, "to entangle, fetter".

impeccable

Latin

From Latin impeccabilis, "not liable to sin" (im- + peccare, "to sin, err").

impedance

Origin

From impede + -ance. In sense 2 and sense 3 it was coined by English mathematician and physicist Oliver Heaviside in 1886.

impede

Latin

From Latin impedire, "to shackle the feet" — from pes, "foot" (compare pedestrian). One of its earliest recorded uses in English is in Shakespeare's Macbeth.

impediment

Latin

From Latin impedimentum, related to impede.

impel

Origin

From Middle English impellen, borrowed from Latin impellō.

impending

Origin

From impend plus -ing.

impenetrable

Latin

From Latin impenetrabilis; im- + penetrable.

impenitent

Origin

The adjective is derived from Late Middle English impenitent (“not penitent, unrepentant”), from Latin impaenitentem, the accusative feminine or masculine singular of impaenitēns (“unrepentant”), from im- (a variant of in- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + paenitēns (“contrite, penitent, regretting, repenting”) (the present active participle of paeniteō (“to be sorry, regret; to cause to repent; to repent”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₁- (“to hate; to hurt”)). By surface analysis, im- + penitent. The noun is derived from the adjective.

imperate

Origin

First attested in 1543, as an adjective, as a verb in 1598; borrowed from Latin imperātus, perfect passive participle of imperō (“to command”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix). Doublet of mpret.