Definition of INSUFFERABLE

insufferable

Meanings

Adjective Satellite

  • used of persons or their behavior
    • "insufferable insolence"

Adj

  • Not sufferable; very difficult or impossible to endure; intolerable, unbearable.

Origin / Etymology

PIE word
*upó
From Late Middle English insufferable (“unbearably painful, intolerable”), and then either:
* from in- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + sufferable, souffrable (“bearable, endurable, tolerable; allowable, permissible; able to or willing to bear hardship; forbearing, long-suffering; calm, self-restrained, slow to anger; capable of suffering”) (from Anglo-Norman sufferable, souffrable, and Old French souffrable, suffrable (“sufferable, tolerable”)); or
* from Old French insouffrable (“which cannot be endured or suffered; something insufferable or unendurable”) (now dialectal), from in- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + souffrable, suffrable.
From Old French souffrable, suffrable are derived from Medieval Latin sufferābilis, from Latin sufferre + -ābilis (suffix meaning ‘able or worthy to be’); while sufferre is the present active infinitive of sufferō, subferō (“to bear or carry under; to bear, endure, suffer, undergo”), from sub- (prefix meaning ‘below, under’) + ferō (“to bear, carry; to endure, suffer, tolerate”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to bear, carry”)). The English word is analysable as in- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + sufferable.

Scrabble Score: 20

insufferable is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
insufferable is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
insufferable is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 24

insufferable is a valid Words With Friends word