impertinent

English

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English impertinent, from Middle French impertinent, from Old French impertinent, from Latin impertinēns; by surface analysis, im- +‎ pertinent.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪm.ˈpɜː.tɪ.nənt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɪm.ˈpɝ.tɪ.nənt/, (rare) /ɪm.ˈpɝt.nənt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

impertinent (comparative more impertinent, superlative most impertinent)

1. Insolent, ill-mannered.
   • 1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page 11:

     “Divine receptacle of excellence, let it not be deemed impertinent, or deviating from the rules of propriety, if I propound one queſtion which now labours in my breaſt; aſſuring me firſt, you will not let the ſceptre of true judgment depart from your right hand.”

2. Irrelevant, useless.

   Antonyms: pertinent, relevant

   • 1664, John Tillotson, “Sermon I. The Wisdom of Being Religious. Job XXVIII. 28.”, in The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson, Late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury: […], 8th edition, London: […] T. Goodwin, B[enjamin] Tooke, and J. Pemberton, […]; J. Round […], and J[acob] Tonson] […], published 1720, →OCLC:

     Curious speculations, and the contemplation of things that are impertinent to us, and do not concern us, nor serve to promote our happiness, are but a more specious and ingenious sort of idleness

   • 1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […], →OCLC:

     How impertinent that grief was which served no end!

Usage notes

• Although definition 2 was the original meaning (derived from the French), the meaning gradually changed to definition 1. More recently, general usage has come to once again incorporate definition 2, though older speakers may consider definition 2 incorrect. The construction "not pertinent" is one possible alternative.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:cheeky

Translations

insolent, ill-mannered

• Armenian: անպատկառ (hy) (anpatkaṙ), հանդուգն (hy) (handugn)
• Bulgarian: нагъл (bg) (nagǎl), нахален (bg) (nahalen)
• Catalan: impertinent (ca)
• Czech: nestydatý (cs) m, drzý (cs) m
• Danish: uforskammet
• Dutch: impertinent (nl)
• Esperanto: malrespekta, impertinenta
• Finnish: asiaton (fi)
• Georgian: თავხედი (ka) (tavxedi), კადნიერი (ḳadnieri), უხეში (uxeši)
• German: unverschämt (de), impertinent (de)
• Hungarian: szemtelen (hu)
• Irish: brusanta, dosartha, sonnta, tagrach
• Italian: impertinente (it), sfacciato (it)
• Latin: procax
• Macedonian: др́зок (dŕzok), на́хален (náhalen)
• Maori: whakatīkai
• Marathi: धृष्ट (dhŕṣṭa), उद्धट (uddhaṭ)
• Plautdietsch: onheeflich, onveschämt
• Polish: bezczelny (pl), arogancki (pl), bezwstydny (pl), hucpiarski, impertynencki (pl), rozpanoszony, rozzuchwalony, tupeciarski, zuchwały (pl)
• Portuguese: impertinente (pt)
• Russian: де́рзкий (ru) (dérzkij), наха́льный (ru) (naxálʹnyj), на́глый (ru) (náglyj)
• Slovak: impertinentný, bezočivý
• Spanish: impertinente (es), maleducado (es)
• Swedish: uppstudsig (sv), oförskämd (sv), näsvis (sv), impertinent (sv)
• Tagalog: balaugi
• Turkish: yüzsüz (tr) (literally “faceless”) (idiomatic)

irrelevant

• Bulgarian: неуместен, неподходящ (neumesten, nepodhodjašt)
• Czech: nemístný (cs) m
• Danish: uvedkommende, irrelevant
• Finnish: epärelevantti (fi), asiaankuulumaton (fi)
• German: irrelevant (de), unwichtig (de)
• Hungarian: lényegtelen (hu)
• Macedonian: неу́месен (neúmesen), непо́годен (nepógoden), несоо́дветен (nesoódveten), безна́чаен (beznáčaen)
• Marathi: अप्रस्तुत (aprastut), गैरलागू (gairlāgū)
• Polish: niestosowny (pl) m, niemający związku m
• Romanian: impertinent (ro)
• Russian: неуме́стный (ru) (neuméstnyj), неподходя́щий (ru) (nepodxodjáščij), неотнося́щийся (neotnosjáščijsja)
• Slovak: irelevantný (sk), nepodstatný
• Swedish: ovidkommande (sv), irrelevant (sv)
• Turkish: alakasız (tr)

Noun

impertinent (plural impertinents)

1. An impertinent individual.
   • 1808 (date written), [Maria] Edgeworth, “Manœuvring. Chapter XII.”, in Tales of Fashionable Life, volume III, London: […] [S. Hamilton] for J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1809, →OCLC, page 292:

     Get near fat Mr. Dutton, and behind the screen of his prodigious elbow, you will be comfortably recessed from curious impertinents.

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

impertinent (comparative impertinenter, superlative impertinentst)

1. insolent, ill-mannered

Inflection

Inflection of impertinent
uninflected	impertinent
inflected	impertinente
comparative	impertinenter
		positive	comparative	superlative
predicative/adverbial		impertinent	impertinenter	het impertinentst het impertinentste
indefinite	m./f. sing.	impertinente	impertinentere	impertinentste
	n. sing.	impertinent	impertinenter	impertinentste
	plural	impertinente	impertinentere	impertinentste
definite		impertinente	impertinentere	impertinentste
partitive		impertinents	impertinenters	—

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Late Latin impertinentem. Morphologically, from in- +‎ pertinent.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.pɛʁ.ti.nɑ̃/

• Audio (Paris)

  (file)

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

impertinent (feminine impertinente, masculine plural impertinents, feminine plural impertinentes)

1. insolent, ill-mannered

   Synonyms: insolent, effronté

Related terms

• insolence

Further reading

• “impertinent”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

German

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

impertinent (strong nominative masculine singular impertinenter, comparative impertinenter, superlative am impertinentesten)

1. insolent, ill-mannered

Declension

Positive forms of impertinent

number & gender		singular			plural
		masculine	feminine	neuter
predicative		er ist impertinent	sie ist impertinent	es ist impertinent	sie sind impertinent
strong declension (without article)	nominative	impertinenter	impertinente	impertinentes	impertinente
	genitive	impertinenten	impertinenter	impertinenten	impertinenter
	dative	impertinentem	impertinenter	impertinentem	impertinenten
	accusative	impertinenten	impertinente	impertinentes	impertinente
weak declension (with definite article)	nominative	der impertinente	die impertinente	das impertinente	die impertinenten
	genitive	des impertinenten	der impertinenten	des impertinenten	der impertinenten
	dative	dem impertinenten	der impertinenten	dem impertinenten	den impertinenten
	accusative	den impertinenten	die impertinente	das impertinente	die impertinenten
mixed declension (with indefinite article)	nominative	ein impertinenter	eine impertinente	ein impertinentes	(keine) impertinenten
	genitive	eines impertinenten	einer impertinenten	eines impertinenten	(keiner) impertinenten
	dative	einem impertinenten	einer impertinenten	einem impertinenten	(keinen) impertinenten
	accusative	einen impertinenten	eine impertinente	ein impertinentes	(keine) impertinenten

Comparative forms of impertinent

number & gender		singular			plural
		masculine	feminine	neuter
predicative		er ist impertinenter	sie ist impertinenter	es ist impertinenter	sie sind impertinenter
strong declension (without article)	nominative	impertinenterer	impertinentere	impertinenteres	impertinentere
	genitive	impertinenteren	impertinenterer	impertinenteren	impertinenterer
	dative	impertinenterem	impertinenterer	impertinenterem	impertinenteren
	accusative	impertinenteren	impertinentere	impertinenteres	impertinentere
weak declension (with definite article)	nominative	der impertinentere	die impertinentere	das impertinentere	die impertinenteren
	genitive	des impertinenteren	der impertinenteren	des impertinenteren	der impertinenteren
	dative	dem impertinenteren	der impertinenteren	dem impertinenteren	den impertinenteren
	accusative	den impertinenteren	die impertinentere	das impertinentere	die impertinenteren
mixed declension (with indefinite article)	nominative	ein impertinenterer	eine impertinentere	ein impertinenteres	(keine) impertinenteren
	genitive	eines impertinenteren	einer impertinenteren	eines impertinenteren	(keiner) impertinenteren
	dative	einem impertinenteren	einer impertinenteren	einem impertinenteren	(keinen) impertinenteren
	accusative	einen impertinenteren	eine impertinentere	ein impertinenteres	(keine) impertinenteren

Superlative forms of impertinent

number & gender		singular			plural
		masculine	feminine	neuter
predicative		er ist am impertinentesten	sie ist am impertinentesten	es ist am impertinentesten	sie sind am impertinentesten
strong declension (without article)	nominative	impertinentester	impertinenteste	impertinentestes	impertinenteste
	genitive	impertinentesten	impertinentester	impertinentesten	impertinentester
	dative	impertinentestem	impertinentester	impertinentestem	impertinentesten
	accusative	impertinentesten	impertinenteste	impertinentestes	impertinenteste
weak declension (with definite article)	nominative	der impertinenteste	die impertinenteste	das impertinenteste	die impertinentesten
	genitive	des impertinentesten	der impertinentesten	des impertinentesten	der impertinentesten
	dative	dem impertinentesten	der impertinentesten	dem impertinentesten	den impertinentesten
	accusative	den impertinentesten	die impertinenteste	das impertinenteste	die impertinentesten
mixed declension (with indefinite article)	nominative	ein impertinentester	eine impertinenteste	ein impertinentestes	(keine) impertinentesten
	genitive	eines impertinentesten	einer impertinentesten	eines impertinentesten	(keiner) impertinentesten
	dative	einem impertinentesten	einer impertinentesten	einem impertinentesten	(keinen) impertinentesten
	accusative	einen impertinentesten	eine impertinenteste	ein impertinentestes	(keine) impertinentesten

Related terms

• Impertinenz

Further reading

• “impertinent” in Duden online
• “impertinent” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French impertinent, from Latin impertinens. Equivalent to in- +‎ pertinent.

Adjective

impertinent m or n (feminine singular impertinentă, masculine plural impertinenți, feminine and neuter plural impertinente)

1. impertinent

Declension

Declension of impertinent

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	impertinent		impertinentă	impertinenți	impertinente
	definite	impertinentul		impertinenta	impertinenții	impertinentele
genitive/ dative	indefinite	impertinent		impertinente	impertinenți	impertinente
	definite	impertinentului		impertinentei	impertinenților	impertinentelor