"impossible" meaning in Middle English

See impossible in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Etymology: From Old French impossible, from Latin impossibilis, from in- (“not”) + possibilis (“possible”). Etymology templates: {{der|enm|fro|impossible}} Old French impossible, {{der|enm|la|impossibilis}} Latin impossibilis Head templates: {{head|enm|adjective}} impossible
  1. Impossible: not able to be done.
    Sense id: en-impossible-enm-adj-r11V6O6z
  2. Incapable (of doing something)
    Sense id: en-impossible-enm-adj-2u4KxmAW
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: inpossible, impossybel

Noun

Forms: impossibles [plural]
Etymology: From Old French impossible, from Latin impossibilis, from in- (“not”) + possibilis (“possible”). Etymology templates: {{der|enm|fro|impossible}} Old French impossible, {{der|enm|la|impossibilis}} Latin impossibilis Head templates: {{head|enm|nouns|g=|g2=|g3=|head=|sort=}} impossible, {{enm-noun}} impossible (plural impossibles)
  1. An act which cannot be accomplished.
    Sense id: en-impossible-enm-noun-pglBTocp
  2. A logical impossibility: a thing which cannot exist, or is a logical self-contradiction
    Sense id: en-impossible-enm-noun-Y9RlQ6DM Categories (other): Middle English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of Middle English entries with incorrect language header: 19 6 25 50
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: inpossible, impossybel

Alternative forms

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          "english": "\"Madame,\" he said, \"This is impossible! Then I must die a sudden and horrible death",
          "ref": "1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Frankeleyns Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC, folio lvii, recto, column 1:",
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          "ref": "c. 1382–1395, John Wycliffe [et al.], edited by Josiah Forshall and Frederic Madden, The Holy Bible, […], volume III, Oxford: At the University Press, published 1850, →OCLC, Wisdom XI:18–19, page 10472, column 1:",
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          "english": "\"Lo, sirs,\" said the lord, \"what bad luck [he's had]! Who ever heard of such a thing before now? To every man equally? Tell me how! It is impossible, it may not be!",
          "ref": "1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Sompners Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC, folio xlvii, verso, column 2:",
          "text": "Lo ſyꝛs (ȹ the loꝛde) with harde grace / Who euer hearde of ſuch a thynge oꝛ nowe? / To Euery man ylyke tell me howe? / It is an impoſſyble, it may not be",
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          "text": "God forbyd that nyse unthrifty though shulde come in thy mynde thy wyttes to trouble, sythen everything in comyng is contyngent. Wherfore, make no more thy proposycion by an impossyble.",
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          "text": "Lo ſyꝛs (ȹ the loꝛde) with harde grace / Who euer hearde of ſuch a thynge oꝛ nowe? / To Euery man ylyke tell me howe? / It is an impoſſyble, it may not be",
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Download raw JSONL data for impossible meaning in Middle English (5.0kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable Middle English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.