impracticable

English

Etymology

From im- +‎ practicable.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɹaktɪkəb(ə)l/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

impracticable (comparative more impracticable, superlative most impracticable)

1. Not practicable; impossible or difficult in practice.

   Antonym: practicable

   • 1952 February, H. C. Casserley, “Permanent Wayfarings”, in Railway Magazine, page 77:

     It has not been used for many years, and although it was impracticable to photograph the engine in the small confines of the shed it was possible to obtain a picture of the plate which it still carries showing the former ownership.

2. impassable (of a passage or road)
3. (obsolete, of a person or thing) unmanageable
   • 1713, Nicholas Rowe, The Fair Penitent‎^[1], 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^[2], 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)
• German: undurchführbar (de), unausführbar (de), unpraktikabel, impraktikabel
• Manx: neuchooilleentagh
• Portuguese: impraticável, inviável (pt)
• Romanian: impracticabil (ro), nepracticabil
• Swedish: ogenomförbar (sv), outförbar (sv)

impassable

• Bulgarian: непроходим (bg) (neprohodim)
• Catalan: impracticable (ca)
• Dutch: onbegaanbaar (nl), onberijdbaar
• French: impraticable (fr)
• German: unwegsam (de), unbegehbar (de), unbefahrbar (de)
• Portuguese: impraticável, inviável (pt)

Noun

impracticable (plural impracticables)

1. (obsolete) an unmanageable person
   • 1829, Henry Barkley Henderson, The Bengalee, or Sketches of Society and Manners in the East‎^[3], 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^[4], 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, 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.

Spanish

Etymology

From in- +‎ practicable.

Pronunciation

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

Adjective

impracticable m or f (masculine and feminine plural impracticables)

1. impracticable

Derived terms

• impracticabilidad

 

Further reading

• “impracticable”, in Diccionario de la lengua española (in Spanish), 23rd edition, Royal Spanish Academy, 2014 October 16