Irremedial

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Impossible to cure, heal, or fix despite any attempt at correction or treatment
2. Beyond the reach of any remedy or solution, so damaged or wrong that nothing can repair it
3. Not capable of being cured or corrected, rendering the situation permanently hopeless and unrecoverable

Etymology: Latin "mederi" meant "to heal" or "to treat," and from it came "remedium," a cure or relief. That word passed into Old French as "remedie" and then into English as "remedy." The negative sense, a problem that cannot be cured, grows naturally from a word for healing. The prefix in- means "not," and it attaches to a base related to "remedial," which derives from "remedy" through the Late Latin adjective "remedialis," meaning "of a remedy." The result describes something that cannot be put right or treated. It is a rare variant of the more common "irremediable," which has the same sense and was formed the same way.