Etymology

unanswerable

U1N1A1N1S1W4E1R1A1B3L1E1

Today it means: Not answerable; impossible to answer. Full definition →

English answerable ← Middle English answeren ← Old English andswerian
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*né
  2. Proto-Indo-European*n̥-
  3. Proto-Germanic*un-
  4. Proto-West Germanic*un-
  5. Old Englishun-
  6. Middle Englishun-
  7. Englishun-
  8. Proto-Indo-European*h₂ent-
  9. Proto-Indo-European*h₂énts
  10. Proto-Germanic*anda-
  11. Proto-Indo-European*swer-
  12. Proto-Germanic*swarjaną
  13. Proto-Germanic*andaswarjaną
  14. Old Englishandswerian
  15. Middle Englishansweren
  16. Englishanswer
  17. Englishanswerable
  18. English todayunanswerable

From un- + answerable.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.