Etymology

impede

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Today it means: To get in the way of; to hinder. Full definition →

Latin impediō
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The story

  1. Latin · borrowed fromimpediō“to shackle”
  2. English todayimpede

Borrowed from Latin impediō (“to shackle”), from pēs (“foot”) (compare pedestrian). First attested use as a verb was in William Shakespeare's Macbeth, see quotations.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.