Untrainable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Incapable of undergoing training or adjustment to improve skills or behavior through instruction
2. Not able to be educated or influenced effectively due to inherent limitations in adaptability or learning
3. Unable to be taught new skills or modified in behavior through instruction

Etymology: "Untrainable" is a plain English compound: the prefix "un-" ("not") attached to "trainable," which is itself "train" plus the suffix "-able" ("capable of being"). So the word literally means "not capable of being trained." The verb "train" has a longer, more tangled ancestry than its modern sense suggests. It descends from Latin "trahere," meaning "to draw" or "to pull," which passed through Vulgar Latin "tragīnāre" and Old French "trainer," meaning "to drag" or "to draw along." Middle English borrowed the idea as "trayne," a term for drawing or dragging, and the sense of guiding or shaping a person or animal developed from there, so the "pulling along" origin is still audible in the word's history. The suffix "-able" traces through Latin "-ābilis" and Old French "-able" before reaching English, and "un-" is one of the oldest elements in the language, inherited from Old English. The word therefore combines a very old negative prefix with a verb that began as a physical act of dragging.

Synonyms: unteachable, incorrigible, intractable, unmanageable

Antonyms: trainable, teachable, malleable, manageable