A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1963 (DOST Vol. III).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1399-1400, 1456-1490, 1573-1588
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Impossibl(e, a.1 Also: -ibill, -ibile and inpossible. [ME. impossible (c 1340), inpossible, -ibile (a 1300), F. impossible, L. impossibilis.] Impossible. Freq. in impersonal constructions.Appar. chiefly as a rendering of or answering to the F. or the L. word. With thing impossible cf. F. chose impossible.(1) a1400 Legends of the Saints xxi. 433.
Inpossible thing is That ocht be done a1400 Ib. 267.
Inpossible is … Aduersite to be in that sted 1456 Hay I. 122/29.
He sall nocht mak of possible thing inpossible 1456 Ib. 193/18.
The law sais that thing impossible oblisis na man 1490 Irland Mir. fol. 180 b.
He … fanȝeis to him in his fantasy a thing impossible(2) c1400 Troy-bk. ii. 223.
Which kynde of tree that it be Impossible is man to wytt 1456 Hay I. 145/14.
Ane service that war inpossible to be maid a1578 Pitsc. I. 94/4.
Witht money wtheris wordis plessant, quhilk ar impossibill to rehearse 1588 King Catechism 5.
[To God] na thing is impossibl nor hard to be done(3) 1456 Hay I. 75/26.
It is impossible that the hevin be still bot moving 1573 Tyrie Cath. Tr. 18/19.
Onles Schir Johne Knox proue his kirk catholik, it is impossible that it be halie
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"Impossibl adj.1". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 14 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/impossible_adj_1>
