inscrutable (2009-04-05)

Part of Speech: adjective

Pronunciation: [in-'skrut-ê-bêl]

Definition: Unfathomable, incomprehensible, inexplicable, mysterious.

Usage: In a letter about himself, the Irish writer James Joyce wrote, "I suppose I now have the reputation of being an inscrutable dipsomaniac." Joyce's 'Ulysses' is an excellent example of inscrutability. But anything incomprehensible is fair game for this word: "Unscrewing the inscrutable motivations of management at this place is not worth the effort."

Suggested Usage: The noun from today's word is "inscrutability." Its meaning has wandered a bit away from that of "scrutiny" but it remains a member of that family. A person who scrutinizes things is a scrutinizer, though "scrutator" and "scrutineer" are terms used to refer to someone whose job it is to investigate or scrutinize, especially the results of an election. If a scrutator scrutinizes his object closely and carefully, he is scrutinous. If he still fails to understand it, it is because the object is inscrutable.

Etymology: Via Old French from Late Latin inscrutabilis based on in- "not" + scrutari "to scrutinize," a verb derived from the noun scruta "trash." The Latin verb originally meaning "to trash" has connotations significantly different from those of the current English correlate: it originally implied searching thoroughly, even in the trash.