Middle English Dictionary Entry
incūrāble adj.
Entry Info
| Forms | incūrāble adj. |
| Etymology | L & OF |
Definitions (Senses and Subsenses)
Note: Cp. curable.
1.
(a) Of a sore, wound, disease: beyond remedy; impossible to cure; (b) of a patient: unable to recover; (c) of a poison: without antidote, deadly; (d) fig. of a penalty, damnation: inescapable, irrevocable; of the damned: impossible to save; of vice, wickedness: impossible to root out.
Associated quotations
a
- (c1375) Chaucer CT.Mk.(Manly-Rickert)B.3790 : God for his manace hym..smoot With invisible wounde, ay incurable.
- (c1384) WBible(1) (Dc 369(2))2 Mac.9.5 : The Lord God..smote hym with a wound incurable [L insanabili].
- (a1387) Trev.Higd.(StJ-C H.1)6.319 : Aluredus..hadde an evel incurable [L incurabili].
- (a1393) Gower CA (Frf 3)4.3509 : Whan the herte faileth..such a Sor is incurable.
- (a1398) *Trev.Barth.(Add 27944)83b/a : Palsy þat comeþ of..kuttynge of synowis is incurable and may nouȝt be I-holpe.
- a1400 Lanfranc (Ashm 1396)196/7 : Albaras þat is blak is incurable, for it is a particuler lepre.
- c1400(c1378) PPl.B (LdMisc 581)10.327 : Þanne shal þe abbot..Haue a knokke of a kynge and incurable þe wounde.
- ?a1425 *Chauliac(1) (NY 12)52a/a : Wondez of þe mydref, namely þat be made in neruous placez, ar incurable [L incurabilia sunt].
- ?a1425 *MS Htrn.95 (Htrn 95)102b/b : Galien seide þat, what tyme colerik enpostumes ben vnsensibel, þei ben incurabel.
- c1425 Arderne Fistula (Sln 6)3/4 : Som demed it [fistula] holy for to be incurable.
- (?a1439) Lydg.FP (Bod 263)9.2997 : To late kometh the..medecyne To festrid soris whan thei be incurable.
- c1460(a1449) Lydg.2 Merch.(Hrl 2255)314 : The which ffevere is gladly incurable.
- c1460(?c1400) Beryn (Nthld 55)2229 : Who be in that plage, þat man is incurabill.
- ?a1475(?a1425) Higd.(2) (Hrl 2261)7.313 : After whiche tyme [William the Conqueror] hade soone a disease incurable.
- c1475(1392) *MS Wel.564 (Wel 564)95b/a : The þridde doctrine tretiþ of þe cure of þe spasme if þat he be curable, and also whiche þat ben curable and whiche þat ben incurable.
- c1475(1392) *MS Wel.564 (Wel 564)113b/a : But if it be so þat þe sijknesse be inveterat & incurable.
- a1500 Imit.Chr.(Dub 678)73/33 : Many men be ladde into errour, &..slide in to a blindnesse incurable.
- c1500 Recipe MSS Hast.in HMC (Hnt HU 1051)1.423 : For a marmole..yf the bone be perichyd, it is incurable.
b
- (1461) Collect.Anglo-Premonst.in RHS ser.3.1046 : Be negligence of your labor, visitacyon, & comforth, your seeke prisoner is lyke to be incurable & perysched verelye.
c
- a1500(c1340) Rolle Psalter (UC 64)p.520 : Gall of draguns the wyne of tha, and venym of snakis incurabil [L insanabile]..lastand malice is thaire drynk incurabyll.
d
- c1400(c1378) PPl.B (LdMisc 581)13.13 : Lewed men ben ladde..Þorugh vnkonnynge curatoures to incurable peynes.
- c1450(?c1400) Wycl.Elucid.(StJ-C G.25)9 : God forsoþe wil no þing haue for satisfaccioun but deeþ, & aungels moun no deeþ suffre; þerfore þei leften incurable.
- c1475(1459) Pros.Yorkists in EHR 26 (Roy 17.D.15)517 : The restorynge of thaim were..a wylfull submyssioun and exposynge of the kynge to thare wylle, the whiche was never good nor never shall be, for as saynt Augustine saithe, 'Veternose consuetudinis vis nimis alto radices habet, Thay bene inextirpable, thay bene incurable.'