Word of the Day: Inviolable | Merriam-Webster
"Under international law, humans possess an inviolable right to freedom of thought. As part of this, governments have a duty to create an environment where people can think freely." — Simon McCarthy-Jones, The Conversation, 27 Sept. 2023
Inviolable is a venerable word that has been with us since the 15th century. Its opposite, violable ("capable of being or likely to be violated"), appeared in the following century. The 17th century English playwright Shackerley Marmion made good use of violable in A Fine Companion, writing, "Alas, my heart is Tender and violable with the least weapon Sorrow can dart at me." But English speakers have never warmed up to that word the way we have to inviolable, and it continues to be used much less frequently. Both terms descend from the Latin verb violare, which both shares the meaning with, and is an ancestor of, the English word violate.
