Etymograph

English

unimpressionable

Unimpressionable comes from French impressionnable ‘impressionable’, and goes back to Latin premō ‘to press, push, press close or hard, oppress,…’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpremō1‘to press, push, press close or hard, oppress, overwhelm’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEimprimō1‘to press, impress’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEimpressiōnem1
  4. Frenchc. 1600–presentimpression1‘an impression, the overall effect of something’
  5. Frenchc. 1600–presentimpressionner1‘to impress, to wow, to awe’
  6. Frenchc. 1600–presentimpressionnable1‘impressionable’
  7. English1500–presentimpressionable1
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1914unimpressionable1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English unimpressionable
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1914, Ernest Bramah: “Creake, in accordance with some detail of his never-revealed…”.

Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpremōWiktionary, English unimpressionable‘to press, push, press close or hard, oppress, overwhelm’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEimprimōWiktionary, English unimpressionable‘to press, impress’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEimpressiōnemWiktionary, English unimpressionable
  4. Frenchc. 1600–presentimpressionWiktionary, English unimpressionable‘an impression, the overall effect of something’
  5. Frenchc. 1600–presentimpressionnerWiktionary, English unimpressionable‘to impress, to wow, to awe’
  6. Frenchc. 1600–presentimpressionnableWiktionary, English unimpressionable‘impressionable’
  7. English1500–presentimpressionableWiktionary, English unimpressionable
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1914unimpressionableWiktionary, English unimpressionable. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1914, Ernest Bramah: “Creake, in accordance with some detail of his never-revealed…”

A compound of un- + impressionable

Proto-Indo-European *n̥- ‘not, un-’

Proto-Germanic *un- ‘not, un-’

Proto-West Germanic *un- ‘not, un-’

English un-

Latin premō ‘to press, push, press close or hard, oppress,…’

…

Latin impressiōnem

French impression ‘an impression, the overall effect of something’

French impressionner ‘to impress, to wow, to awe’

French impressionnable

English impressionable

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *pres- ‘to press’

first, expression, frist, 29 more

through Proto-Italic *pres-

pressure, express, depression, oppression, compression, suppression, depressive, compress, depress, repress, impressionistic, 30 more

through Latin premō ‘to press, push, press close or hard, oppress,…’

press, pregnant, imprint, sprain, reprimand, 41 more

through Latin imprimō ‘to press, impress’

impressive, impression, impress, imprimatur, 24 more

through French impression ‘an impression, the overall effect of something’

impressionist, impressionism, 9 more

Today it means

adj Not impressionable.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “unimpressionable”. 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 premō / unimpressionable