English
unimpressionable
Unimpressionable comes from French impressionnable ‘impressionable’, and goes back to Latin premō ‘to press, push, press close or hard, oppress,…’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpremō1‘to press, push, press close or hard, oppress, overwhelm’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEimprimō1‘to press, impress’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEimpressiōnem1
- Frenchc. 1600–presentimpression1‘an impression, the overall effect of something’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentimpressionner1‘to impress, to wow, to awe’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentimpressionnable1‘impressionable’
- English1500–presentimpressionable1
- Englishearliest quotation 1914unimpressionable1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English unimpressionable
- 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
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpremōWiktionary, English unimpressionable‘to press, push, press close or hard, oppress, overwhelm’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEimprimōWiktionary, English unimpressionable‘to press, impress’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEimpressiōnemWiktionary, English unimpressionable
- Frenchc. 1600–presentimpressionWiktionary, English unimpressionable‘an impression, the overall effect of something’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentimpressionnerWiktionary, English unimpressionable‘to impress, to wow, to awe’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentimpressionnableWiktionary, English unimpressionable‘impressionable’
- English1500–presentimpressionableWiktionary, English unimpressionable
- 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’
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