unpossible

English

Etymology

From Middle English unpossible, equivalent to un- (“not”) +‎ possible.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʌnˈpɒsɪbəl/

Adjective

unpossible (comparative more unpossible, superlative most unpossible)

1. (now rare, nonstandard, sometimes humorous) Impossible.
   • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, (please specify the book of the Bible):

     And this is the. vj. moneth to her, which was called barren, for with god shall nothinge be unpossible.

   • 1579, Plutarke of Chæronea [i.e., Plutarch], “Agis and Cleomenes”, in Thomas North, transl., The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romaines, […], London: […] Richard Field, →OCLC, page 851:

     But the young man Hippomedon making her priuie vnto it, at the firſt ſhe was amaſed withall, and bad him hold his peace if he were wiſe, and not medle in matters vnpoſſible and vnprofitable.

   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:

     , New York Review of Books, 2001, p.280:

     ’Tis a hard matter therefore to confine them, being they are so various and many, unpossible to apprehend all.

   • 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, Kupperman, published 1988, page 97:

     In the evening we fired a few rackets, which flying in the ayre so terrified the poore Salvages, they supposed nothing unpossible we attempted […].

   • 1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia, section XXI:

     [S]o prodigiously various are the works of the Creator, and so All-sufficient is he to perform what to man would seem unpossible […].

   • 1994, “Lisa on Ice”, in The Simpsons:

     Ralph Wiggum: Me fail English? That's unpossible!

   • 2008, David Goldberg, “meeting with HKS”, in Mimecast:

     I think we can all agree that this is unpossible.