impracticable

impracticable

English

Etymology

From im- +‎ practicable.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɹaktɪkəb(ə)l/

Adjective

impracticable (comparative more impracticable, superlative most impracticable)

1. not practicable; impossible or difficult in practice

   Antonym: practicable

2. (of a passage or road) impassable
3. (obsolete, of a person or thing) unmanageable
   • 1713, Nicholas Rowe, The Fair Penitent‎, published 1797:

     And yet this tough impracticable heart / Is govern'd by a dainty-finger'd girl ; […]

   • c. 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks‎, published 1960, page 18:

     H. is a person of extraordinary health & vigor, of unerring perception, & equal expression; and yet he is impracticable, and does not flow through his pen or (in any of our legitimate aqueducts) through his tongue.

Derived terms

• impracticability
• impracticableness
• impracticably

 

Translations

not practicable

Bulgarian: неизпълним (bg) (neizpǎlnim), неподатлив (bg) (nepodatliv) Catalan: impracticable (ca) Dutch: onuitvoerbaar (nl) Esperanto: nefarebla French: impraticable (fr) m or f German: undurchführbar (de), unausführbar (de), unpraktikabel, impraktikabel Manx: neuchooilleentagh Romanian: impracticabil (ro), nepracticabil Swedish: ogenomförbar (sv), outförbar (sv)

impassable

Bulgarian: непроходим (bg) (neprohodim) Catalan: impracticable (ca) Dutch: onbegaanbaar (nl), onberijdbaar French: impraticable (fr) m or f German: unwegsam (de), unbegehbar (de), unbefahrbar (de)

Noun

impracticable (plural impracticables)

1. (obsolete) an unmanageable person
   • 1829, Henry Barkley Henderson, The Bengalee, or Sketches of Society and Manners in the East‎, page 13:

     They were not allowed, of course, to join us in the sitting room, partly that their practice might not be disturbed, but principally, that I was looked upon as an utter impracticable.

   • 1867, James Parton, Famous Americans of Recent Times‎, page 83:

     The strict constructionists had dwindled to a few impracticables, headed by John Randolph.

   • 1870, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Clubs”, in Society and Solitude. Twelve Chapters, Boston, Mass.: Fields, Osgood, & Co., OCLC 926043624, page 208:

     Then there are the gladiators, to whom it is always a battle; 't is no matter on which side, they fight for victory; then the heady men, the egotists, the monotones, the steriles, and the impracticables.

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Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /impɾaɡtiˈkable/ [ĩm.pɾaɣ̞.t̪iˈka.β̞le]
• Rhymes: -able
• Syllabification: im‧prac‧ti‧ca‧ble

Adjective

impracticable (plural impracticables)

1. impracticable

Further reading

• “impracticable”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014