inviolable

From Middle French inviolable, from Latin inviolābilis (“untouchable”), from violō (“violate”).

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈvaɪələbl̩/
• Hyphenation: in‧vi‧o‧la‧ble

inviolable (comparative more inviolable, superlative most inviolable)

1. Not violable; not to be infringed.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     , lines 842–4:

     But come, for thou, be ſure, ſhalt give account / To him who ſent us, whoſe charge is to keep / This place inviolable, and therefore theſe from harm.

   • a. 1682, Sir Thomas Browne, “Christian Morals”, in Henry Gardiner, editor, Religio Medici, together with a Letter to a Friend on the Death of His Intimate Friend and Christian Morals, London: W. Pickering, published 1845, part III, page 337:

     But honeſt men’s words are Stygian oaths, and promiſes inviolable.

   • 1828, Thomas Castaly, “The Recorder”, in Fanny with Other Poems, page 87:

     One more request, and I am lost, / If you its earnest prayer deny ; / It is, that you preserve the most / Inviolable secrecy / As to my plan.

2. Not susceptible to violence, or of being profaned, corrupted, or dishonoured.
3. Incapable of being injured or invaded; indestructible.

• (not violable): unbreakable, unbreachable
• (not susceptible of being profaned): holy, sacred, sacrosanct
• (incapable of being injured or invaded): invincible, unassailable

• (not violable): incompliable (incapable of being complied); violable, breakable (capable of being violated)
• (not susceptible of being profaned): violable
• (incapable of being injured or invaded): invadable

• inviolability
• inviolableness
• inviolably

• inviolable in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• inviolable in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

From Latin inviolābilis (“untouchable”).

inviolable (plural inviolables)

1. inviolable

• “inviolable” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

From Latin inviolābilis (“untouchable”).

• IPA^(key): /imbjoˈlable/, [ĩmbjoˈlaβle]

inviolable (plural inviolables)

1. inviolable