English
incompetence
Incompetence comes from Latin incompetens ‘insufficient’, and goes back to competēns ‘meeting, coinciding, agreeing’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcompetēns1‘meeting, coinciding, agreeing’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEincompetens2as incompetentem‘insufficient’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentincompétent3
- Frenchc. 1600–presentincompétence4
- Englishearliest quotation 1851incompetence4
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin incompetens
- 2 Wiktionary, French incompétent
- 3 Wiktionary, French incompétence
- 4 Wiktionary, English incompetence
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or: “... at the head of a crew, too, chiefly…”.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcompetēnsWiktionary, Latin incompetens‘meeting, coinciding, agreeing’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEincompetensWiktionary, French incompétentas incompetentem‘insufficient’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentincompétentWiktionary, French incompétence
- Frenchc. 1600–presentincompétenceWiktionary, English incompetence
- Englishearliest quotation 1851incompetenceWiktionary, English incompetence. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or: “... at the head of a crew, too, chiefly…”
Formed from in- + competence
Latin competēns ‘meeting, agreeing’
Late Latin competentia ‘agreement, symmetry, correspondence’
Middle French compétence
English competence
Linked words
through Latin competēns ‘meeting, coinciding, agreeing’
Today it means
noun An inability to perform; a lack of competence; ineptitude.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “incompetence”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin incompetens, French incompétent, French incompétence. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin competēns / incompetence