unsustainable

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *né

Proto-Indo-European *n̥-

Proto-Germanic *un-

Proto-West Germanic *un-

Old English un-

Middle English un-

English un-

English sustain

Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr

Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom

Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlis

Proto-Italic *-ðlis

Latin -bilis

Latin -ābilis

Old French -ablebor.

Middle English -able

English -able

English sustainable

English unsustainable

From un- + sustainable.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

unsustainable (comparative more unsustainable, superlative most unsustainable)

1. Not sustainable.
   • 2022 January 12, Sir Michael Holden, “Reform of the workforce or death by a thousand cuts?”, in RAIL, number 948, page 22:

     You don't have to be Einstein to work out that this level of government subsidy is unsustainable.

   • 2022 July 4, Ben Schott, “Is There Anything That Gen Z Won’t Drink?”, in The Washington Post‎^[1]:

     RTDs cover a multitude of sips, including: “hard” or “spiked” teas, coffees, kombuchas and seltzers; […] . And although the sector was birthed in the ’30s by drinks like Campari Soda, and boomed in the ’90s with Bacardi Breezer and Smirnoff Ice, RTDs are now at a point of seemingly unsustainable saturation.

Translations

Not sustainable

• Catalan: insostenible
• Finnish: kestämätön (fi)
• French: pas viable, non viable, pas tenable, intenable (fr), insoutenable (fr)
• Galician: insustentábel
• German: unhaltbar (de)
• Hungarian: fenntarthatatlan
• Italian: insostenibile (it)
• Norwegian: ikke bærekraftig
• Polish: niezrównoważony (pl)
• Portuguese: insustentável (pt)
• Spanish: insostenible
• Swedish: ohållbar (sv)

Noun

unsustainable (plural unsustainables)

1. Something that cannot be sustained.