redoubtable

The adjective is derived from Late Middle English redoutable (“worthy of honour, venerable; frightening, terrible”),^[1] borrowed from Anglo-Norman redoutable and Middle French redoutable, redoubtable, from Old French redotable (modern French redoutable), from redoter (“to fear”) (whence Middle French redoubter, redouter, French redouter) + -able (suffix meaning ‘deserving of, worthy of’).^[2] Redoter is derived from re- (intensifying prefix) + doter (“to doubt; to fear”) (from Latin dubitō (“to doubt, be uncertain, waver in opinion”), probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dwi- (“apart, asunder; two”) + *bʰuH- (“to appear; to be; to become; to grow”), in the sense of being in two minds).

The noun is derived from the adjective.^[2]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈdaʊtəbl̩/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɹəˈdaʊtəb(ə)l/, /ɹi-/, [-ɾə-]

• Audio (General American); [ɹiˈdaʊɾəbəl]:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: re‧doubt‧a‧ble

redoubtable (comparative more redoubtable, superlative most redoubtable)

1. Especially of a person.
   1. (in a positive sense, sometimes humorous) Eliciting respect; awe-inspiring, imposing.

      Antonym: unredoubtable

      The redoubtable New York Times has been called the “newspaper of record” of the United States.

      • 1593, Gabriell Haruey [i.e., Gabriel Harvey], Pierces Supererogation: Or A New Prayse of the Old Asse. A Preparative to Certaine Larger Discourses, Intituled Nashes S. Fame, London: […] Iohn Wolfe, →OCLC; republished as John Payne Collier, editor, Pierces Supererogation: Or A New Prayse of the Old Asse. […] (Miscellaneous Tracts. Temp. Eliz. & Jac. I; no. 8), [London]: [s.n.], [1870], →OCLC, page 143:

        VVhere ſuch an other Rodomont, ſo furious, ſo valorous, ſo redoutable?

      • 1941 September, O[swald] S[tevens] Nock, “The Locomotives of Sir Nigel Gresley: Part V”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 396:

        This new batch was sent to Leicester shed, and the redoubtable enginemen who had made such a reputation for themselves with the ex-G.C.R. Atlantics took to the "B17s" immediately, although, of course, they required quite different driving methods; […] .

      • 2022 November 2, Paul Bigland, “New Trains, Old Trains, and Splendid Scenery”, in Rail, number 969, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 57:

        Three local yobs have also joined, but they have not reckoned on a redoubtable Conductor and two local revenue protection officers who soon escort them off the train!

   2. (in a negative sense) Eliciting dread or fear; appalling, formidable.

      Antonym: unredoubtable

      • 1530 July 28 (Gregorian calendar), Iohan Palsgraue [i.e., John Palsgrave], “Of the Verbe”, in Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse⸝ […], [London]: […] [Richard Pynson] fynnysshed by Iohan Haukyns, →OCLC, 3rd boke, folio cxxii, verso; reprinted Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, October 1972, →OCLC:

        [I]t pleaſed the grekes at that tyme to ſe yͤ body of Hector ſo trayned by Achilles⸝ bycauſe he was wont to be ſo redoubtab[l]e to them⸝ […]

      • 1787 July 1 (date written), Robert Burns, “On the Death of Sir James Hunter Blair”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, volume III (Posthumous Poems), Kilmarnock, Scotland: […] James M‘Kie, →OCLC, page 33:

        Revers'd that ſpear, redoubtable in war, / Reclined that banner, erſt in fields unfurl'd, / That like a deathful meteor, gleam'd afar, / And brav'd the mighty monarchs of the world.— […]

      • 1906 January–October, Joseph Conrad, chapter VIII, in The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale (Collection of British Authors; 3995), copyright edition, London: Bernhard Tauchnitz, published 1907, →OCLC, page 154:

        Inwardly she quaked, because she dreaded and admired the calm, self-contained character of her daughter Winnie, whose displeasure was made redoubtable by a diversity of dreadful silences.

• redoubtableness
• redoubtably
• unredoubtable

redoubtable (plural redoubtables) (often in the plural)

1. (in a positive sense, sometimes humorous) A person who elicits respect.
2. (in a negative sense) A person who elicits dread or fear; a formidable person.
   • 1844, Robert Browning, “Colombe’s Birthday. A Play.”, in Poems […], new edition, volume I, London: Chapman & Hall, […], published 1849, →OCLC, page 337:

     Had you sought the Lady's court yourself.— / Faced the redoubtables composing it, / Flattered this, threatened that man, bribed the other,— / Pleaded, by writ and word and deed, your cause,— / Conquered a footing inch by painful inch,— / And, after long years' struggle, pounced at last / On her for prize,—the right life had been lived.

redoubtable (plural redoubtables)

1. archaic spelling of redoutable

redoubtable m or f (plural redoubtables)

1. fearsome

• French: redoutable