incompossible

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

incompossible (in-kom-POS-si-buhl) - adj., not possible together, wholly incompatible or inconsistent.


A stronger word than incompatible, which suggests that two things can't be with each other ("not congruent" as one dictionary puts it) -- incompossible suggests not just they can't be in proximity but can't both exist at the same time. Not rare if not obsolete, which is a pity as sometimes you want a stronger word than incompatible. From Latin incompossibilis, but possibly under the influence of French incompossible -- the roots break down as in-, not + com-, together + possibilis, possible, from posse, to be able.

I told my kids last week about the engagement -- Brad just sorta shrugged but Charlene still refuses to accept it, insisting that she and Felicity are incompossible and she'll never accept her as her mother.


Administrivia: I won't be able to post next Thursday -- can any of our eager volunteer backups take over for the 7th of October?

---L.

A day late but not a word short

[miss-daizy.livejournal.com]

palimpsest [pal-imp-sest]

noun

a manuscript on which two or more successive texts have been written, each one being erased to make room for the next

Etymology

1661, from L. palimpsestus = parchment cleaned for re-use; from Gk. palimpsestos = scraped again' from palin= again (see palindrome) + verbal adj. of psen "to rub smooth" (of unknown origin).

Usage:

"Language is an archeological vehicle ... the language we speak is a whole palimpsest of human effort and history."

-Russell Hoban