Where does “unthinkable” come from?
I need to work through this chain carefully, but I notice there are significant problems with it:
1. The chain appears malformed—it lists "Proto-Indo-European ano-" twice and includes isolated elements (ne, h₂ent-) without clear connection to "unthinkable."
2. Most critically, "Latin unus" (one) and "Latin -abilis" (capable of being) don't etymologically compose to form English "think" or relate to "unthinkable" in any standard account.
3. The chain doesn't actually trace "unthinkable" backward—it seems to mix unrelated etymological material.
Given these issues, I cannot write an accurate one-sentence etymology. A responsible summary would require:
- Clarity on whether this traces "think" or "unthinkable"
- A coherent chain (think < OE thencan < PIE *ten
unthinkable (English): Incapable of being believed; incredible;...
Definitions
- Incapable of being believed; incredible;...
Ancestry of “unthinkable”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | Un- | — |
| 2 | Middle English | un- | — |
| 3 | Old English | un- | negation or absence of: un-, non-; bad; forms... |
| 4 | Proto-West Germanic | un- | not, un- |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | un- | not, un- |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | n̥- | not, un- |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | ne | not |
Words derived from “unthinkable”