Impeccable — From Latin to English | etymologist.ai
impeccable
/ɪmˈpɛkəbl/·adjective·1530s·Established
Origin
From Latin 'in-' (not) + 'peccāre' (to sin, to stumble), from PIE *ped- (foot) — sin as a misstep, impeccable as unable to stumble.
Definition
Without fault or error; flawless in quality or character.
The Full Story
Latin1530swell-attested
From Latin impeccābilis (not liable to sin, incapable of transgression), composed of in- (not) and peccābilis (capable of sinning), from peccāre (to sin, to transgress, to make a false step, to stumble). Latin peccāre originally had a physical sense: to stumble or make a false step with thefoot, from PIE *ped- (foot). The semantic journeyruns: physical stumbling → moral
Did you know?
Latin 'peccāre' (to sin) originally meant 'to stumble' or 'to trip' — making sin literally a misstep, a false move of the foot. The mildword 'peccadillo' (a small sin) preserves this through the Spanish diminutive: a peccadillo is a tiny stumble, a little slip of the moral foot.
, impeccable timing) transfers the theological claim: to have impeccable taste is to be sinlessly correct in aesthetic judgment. The word peccadillo (a small sin) comes from Spanish pecadillo, a diminutive of the same Latin peccāre. Key roots: in- (Latin: "not"), peccāre (Latin: "to sin, to stumble"), *ped- (Proto-Indo-European: "foot").