Intolerableness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The state or quality of being so harsh or unpleasant that it cannot be endured or tolerated
2. The degree to which something is unbearable, making it impossible to put up with comfortably
3. Unbearable character or extent of a painful, offensive, or trying situation that one cannot bear

Etymology: Intolerableness is a plain formation: the adjective "intolerable" with the suffix "-ness" added to turn a quality into a noun. The adjective itself comes from Latin "intolerabilis", built from the negating prefix "in-" and "tolerabilis", "bearable", which in turn comes from "tolerare", "to bear or endure". The suffix is older than the adjective's Latin roots, descending through Old English "-nes" and Middle English "-nesse" from a Germanic ancestor that meant something like a state or condition. That suffix is one of the most productive tools in English. Attaching "-ness" to almost any adjective yields a noun naming the quality it describes, so "intolerableness" simply means the state of being intolerable, the degree to which something cannot be borne. The word is a noun coinage of this kind and carries no separate history beyond its parts.

Synonyms: unbearableness, insufferableness, insupportableness

Antonyms: tolerableness, bearableness