Etymology

undecidable

U1N1D2E1C3I1D2A1B3L1E1

Today it means: Incapable of being algorithmically decided in finite time. For example, a set of strings is undecidable if it is impossible to program a computer (even one with infinite memory) to determine whether or not specified strings are included. Full definition →

English decidable ← Middle English un- ← Old English un-
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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. Englishdecide
  9. Englishdecidable
  10. English todayundecidable

From un- + decidable.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.