Ineffable: Word of the Week

Here is the word for this week:

ineffable \in-EF-uh-buhl\, adjective:

1. Incapable of being expressed in words; unspeakable; unutterable; indescribable.

2. Not to be uttered; taboo.

. . .the tension inherent in human language when it attempts to relate the ineffable, see the invisible, understand the incomprehensible.

-- Jeffrey Burton Russell, A History of Heaven

Pope John Paul II notes that people are drawn to religion to answer the really big questions--for example, "What is the ultimate ineffable mystery which is the origin and destiny of our existence?"

-- William A. Sherden, The Fortune Sellers

One cannot blame them very much; explaining the ineffable is difficult.

-- Edward O. Wilson, "The Biological Basis of Morality", The Atlantic, April 1998

Ineffable is from Latin ineffabilis, from in-, "not" + effabilis, "utterable," from effari, "to utter," from ex-, "out" + fari, "to speak."