irrefragable
adjUS, UK /ɪˈɹɛfɹəɡəb(ə)l/
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Late Latin irrefrāgābilis (“irrefragable”) + English -able (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘able or fit to be done’). Irrefrāgābilis is derived from Latin ir- (variant of in- (prefix meaning ‘not’)) + refrāgārī + -bilis (suffix forming adjectives indicating a capacity or worth of being acted upon); while refrāgārī is the present active infinitive of refrāgor (“to oppose, resist; to gainsay, thwart”) (further etymology uncertain, possibly from re- (prefix meaning ‘again’) + fragor (“a breaking, shattering; a crash; din, uproar”) (from frangō (“to break, shatter”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- (“to break”))), formed as an antonym of suffrāgōr, the first-person singular present passive indicative of suffrāgō (“to support; to vote for”).
1
Which cannot be refuted; clearly right, incontrovertible, indisputable, irrefutable.
- Beſide, what methodicall artiſt would allow the encomium of the foxe in the prayſe of the aſſe, unleſſe I would proove by irrefragable demonſtration, that the falſe fox was a true aſſe: as I once heard a learned phyſician affirme, if a gooſe were a fox, he was a fox.1593, Gabriell Haruey [i.e., Gabriel Harvey], Pierces Supererogation: Or A New Prayse of the Old Asse. A Preparative to Certaine Larger Discourses, Intituled Nashes S. Fame, London: […] Iohn Wolfe, →OCLC; republished as John Payne Collier, editor, Pierces Supererogation: Or A New Prayse of the Old Asse. […] (Miscellaneous Tracts. Temp. Eliz. & Jac. I; no. 8), [London]: [s.n.], [1870], →OCLC, page 210:
- He knew what's what, and that's as high / As Metaphysick Wit can fly, / In School Divinity as able / As he that hight Irrefragable; […]1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto I.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 7:
4 more examples
- In this Kings reign flouriſhed in England, the Irrefragable Doctor Alexander de Hales, who was School-Maſter to the Angelic Dr. Thomas Aquinas.1679, [William Howell], “Henry III”, in Medulla Historiæ Anglicanæ. Being a Comprehensive History of the Lives and Reigns of the Monarchs of England, […], London: […] Abel Swalle, […], →OCLC, page 178:
- This is the way to end the vexatious Queſtions about them [the Kingdom of the Picts], being taken out of the moſt authentick Records of Ireland, which are of ſuch irrefragable Authority, That ſome are perſuaded, had they been known to [William] Camden, he would never have diſputed the matter. And ſo I think too. But this irrefragable Authority is that of the Pſalter of Caſhel; […]1685, Ed[ward] Stillingfleet, “Of the Declension of the British Churches”, in Origines Britannicæ, or, The Antiquities of the British Churches. […], London: […] M[iles] Flesher for Henry Mortlock, […], →OCLC, page 274:
- [A]ll the preſent compoſers of French comic operas imitate the Italian ſtyle, […] I wiſh this may not, ſometimes, happen in England; but, however that may be, it is certainly an irrefragable proof of the ſuperiority of that melody which is become the common muſical language of all Europe: […]1775, Charles Burney, “Brussels”, in The Present State of Music in Germany, the Netherlands, and United Provinces. […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: […] T. Becket, […]; J. Robson, […]; and G. Robinson, […], →OCLC, pages 53–54:
- Bulfinch, a solicitor at Redcastle, came to him with irrefragable proofs of gross peculation on the part of the bailiff who managed the home farm which supplied the house and stables, and showed him that it was necessary to make a thorough investigation and change of system.1885, Charlotte M[ary] Yonge, “Wolf”, in Nuttie’s Father, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 217:
2
Archaic Which cannot or should not be broken; indestructible.
- But this loue of ours is immoderate, inordinate, and not to be comprehended in any bounds. It will not containe it ſelfe within the vnion of marriage, or apply it ſelfe to one obiect, but it is a wandring extravagant, a domineering, a boundleſſe, an irrefragable paſſion: […]1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “How Loue Tyrannizeth ouer Men. Loue or Heroicall Melancholy, His Definition, Part Affected.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 3, section 2, member 1, subsection 2, page 363:
- […] Intire Affection (from whence Integrity has its name) as it is anſwerable to it-ſelf, proportionable, and rational; ſo it is irrefragable, ſolid, and durable.1699, A.A.C.A.N.A.Æ.C.M.D.C.L.X.X.J. [pseudonym; Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury], “Treatise IV. Viz. an Inquiry Concerning Virtue, or Merit. […]”, in Characteristics, &c. [i.e., Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times. […]], volume II, [London: John Darby], published 1711, →OCLC, part II, section I, page 111:
3
Obsolete Of a person: obstinate, stubborn.
- Many young men are as obſtinate, and as curious in their choice, as tyrannically proud, inſulting, deceitfull, falſe hearing, as irrefragable & peeuiſh, Narciſſus like, […]1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “The Last and Best Cure of Loue Melancholy, is, to Let Them Haue Their Desire”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 3, section 2, member 5, subsection 5, page 453:
- Derived terms
- irrefragability, irrefragableness, irrefragably