irrecognizable
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
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.