irrecognizable

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From ir- +‎ recognizable.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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irrecognizable (comparative more irrecognizable, superlative most irrecognizable)

  1. (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

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Derived terms

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References

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  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.