impedimenta

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin impedimenta, circa 1600. Compare impediment.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪmˌpɛdɪˈmɛntə/

Noun

impedimenta

1. Equipment intended for an activity that serves as more of a hindrance than a help, especially military baggage.
   • 1892, Julian Ralph, On Canada's Frontier:

     On the plains they will have horses dragging travoises, dogs with travoises, women and children loaded with impedimenta.

   • 1939 June, “Pertinent Paragraphs: A Surprise at Didcot”, in Railway Magazine, page 452:

     Dashing back to my compartment, I grabbed my impedimenta - what my companion thought of the maniac who alighted at a station only half-way to the first booked stop I don't know ! - got out, hurried under the subway, and was into my 10.45 comfortably before its departure.

   • 1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, page 20:

     Games impedimenta — hockey-sticks, boxing-gloves, a burst football, a pair of sweaty shorts turned inside out — lay all over the floor, and on the table there was a litter of dirty dishes and dog-eared exercise-books.

2. plural of impedimentum

Synonyms

• impediments

Related terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *ped- (0 c, 64 e)

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “impedimenta”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Latin

Noun

impedīmenta n

1. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of impedīmentum (“hindrance, impediment, heavy baggage”)

References

• “impedimenta”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers