irrecognizable
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From ir- + recognizable.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɪˈɹɛkə(ɡ)naɪzəbəl/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ɪˈɹɛkəɡnaɪzəbəl/, (nonstandard) /ˈɹɛkənaɪzəbəl/
- (obsolete) IPA(key): /ɪɹɪˈkɒɡnɪzəbəl/[1]
Adjective
[edit]irrecognizable (comparative more irrecognizable, superlative most irrecognizable)
- (archaic, rare) Unable to be recognized.[2]
- 1850, Thomas Carlyle, “The Stump Orator”, in Latter Day Pamphlets:
- The immortal gods are there (quite irrecognizable under these disguises), and also the lowest broken valets.
- 1902 March 15, “Judge Endlich on Early Life in Berks”, in Reading Eagle, USA, retrieved 26 Aug. 2010, page 11:
- [T]here remains no trace of their having ever existed—outside of course of the family names which are now preserved, though some of them in an almost irrecognizable form.
- c. 1933, Clark Ashton Smith, “The Light from Beyond”, in The White Sybil and Other Stories, 2005 edition, page 142:
- The loamy ground on which I lay, the scattered fragments of the cairn beside me, and the rocks and junipers, were irrecognizable as if they had belonged to some other planet than ours.
Synonyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Jespersen, Otto (1909) A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles (Sammlung germanischer Elementar- und Handbücher; 9)[1], volumes I: Sounds and Spellings, London: George Allen & Unwin, published 1961, § 5.66, page 170.
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.