intractable
/ɪnˈtræk.tə.bəl/adjective
Difficult to manage, control, or deal with
From Latin in- (Not) + Latin tractable (Manageable).
Lineage
in-
tractable
The story
The key image is wonderfully physical: someone trying to get a grip on a stubborn animal, a tangled problem, or a storm-tossed sea. Latin tractābilis meant something that could be handled or managed, from tractō, “to handle”; add in-, “not,” and the result is what refuses your grasp. English had the word by about 1500, first describing something “rough, stormy,” before it settled into the familiar “not manageable” sense by the 1540s. The route into English may have been through 15th-century French intractable, or directly from Latin intractabilis. So when a negotiation turns intractable, picture not merely a difficult conversation, but something that won’t be taken in hand.
Words from the same roots
in- · Latin, ‘Not; opposite of’
Derivedinflexible, incoherent, incongruous, intransigent
Sources
- Etymonlineintractable, in-, tractable, care, quince, contrary, meticulous
- Urban Dictionaryintractable
- Wiktionaryintractable, in-, tractable