Kevin has written to ask me about the word ‘ineffable.’ He says that last Sunday in church they sang a hymn that contained this strange word ‘ineffable’ and it has left him puzzled. Can I help? He asks. Yes, I think I can. Quite possibly the hymn Kevin was singing was ‘Crown Him with Many Crowns’ the last verse of which goes like this:
Crown him the Lord of years,
the Potentate of time,
Creator of the rolling spheres,
ineffably sublime.
There’s that word that bothers Kevin in the phrase ‘ineffably sublime.’ The basic answer is quite simple: ‘ineffable’ means ‘unable to be spoken; impossible to put into words; beyond ordinary human language.’
Here’s the official definition of ‘ineffable’ from the Oxford English Dictionary: ‘That which cannot be expressed or described in language; too great for words; transcending expression; unspeakable, unutterable, inexpressible.’
In other words, in this context, the hymn writer is saying that God is so sublime that he could never express it in mere words.
This is (to state the obvious) an extremely rare word.
In fact, in modern English it probably only exists because this old hymn keeps it alive.
However, perhaps we could revive it and find a use for it? (More on that in a moment.)
‘Ineffable’ dates from around 1450 (so it’s also very old).
It came into English from French, and behind the French is a Latin source word.
More than that—there used to be the word ‘effable’ meaning ‘able to be spoken off; something you can put into words.’
Behind ‘effable’ is the Latin word effābilis which means ‘to utter’ or ‘to speak.’
And ‘ineffable’ is just the negative of ‘effable.’
That same verse of that same hymn contains the word ‘potentate’. This won’t bother most people, but in case it does, ‘potentate’ is just a fancy, Latin-based, word meaning ‘king.’
Now, could we use ‘ineffable’ today? Surely, with a bit of imagination, we could.
We might, for instance, choose to say that our Climate and Energy Minister (thank you for the higher power bills!) Chris Bowen is ‘ineffably stupid’ (that is, ‘stupid beyond words’).
I think that works, don’t you?
Tonight I'll join John Stanley on 2GB, 4BC, 2CC and the Nine Radio Network for 'The Word Clinic' -- right after the 10pm news (9pm in Queensland). This is your chance to ask a question or make a comment on the talkback line or via text. And if you were listening to me talk to Michael McLaren on 2GB on Tuesday about the origin of 'OK' this is your chance to argue over that disputed question!
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