impossible

Etymology

From Middle English impossible.

adj

1. Not possible; not able to be done or happen.
   It was impoſſible that the queen of France Marie Antoinette] ſhould not be deeply affected by a conteſt, which ſo cloſely involved her neareſt and deareſt connections, and threatened ſo immediate and perhaps irreparable a breach of the harmony and friendſhip ſubſiſting between them. 1787, “The History of Europe”, in The Annual Register, or A View of the History, Politics, and Literature, for the Years 1784 and 1785, volume XXVII, London: Printed by J[ames] Dodsley, in Pall-Mall, →OCLC, chapter VIII, page 134, column 1
   13 March 1962, John F. Kennedy, speech at the White House Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
   Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […]. Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. When a series of bank failures made this impossible, there was widespread anger, leading to the public humiliation of symbolic figures. 2013-06-28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21
   It is difficult, if not impossible, to memorize 20,000 consecutive numbers.
   Sarah thinks that nothing is impossible because things can always somehow happen.
2. (colloquial, of a person) Very difficult to deal with.
   You never listen to a word I say – you're impossible!
   I never met a more impossible girl. 2006, Amanda Palmer (lyrics and music), “Delilah”, in Yes, Virginia..., performed by The Dresden Dolls
3. (mathematics, dated) imaginary
   impossible quantities, or imaginary numbers

noun

1. An impossibility.
   In fact, to most people, the real impossibles do not seem impossible, or wonderful, or even difficult at all. 1888 November, Joseph Le Conte, “The Problem of a Flying-Machine”, in The Popular Science Monthly, volume 34, page 70
   “Ye can't expect impossibles, and Jim hadn't no idee o' takin' yer trunk along of him in ther buggy when he kem hyar this mornin'. 1890, Jean Kate Ludlum, At Brown's: An Adirondack Story, page 15
   For one thing, the Gospel's moral impossibles appear, in this light, not as an objection to Christianity, but as one of its most striking evidences. 1903, Jonathan Brierley, Problems of Living, page 16
   Yes, the church lives for impossibles, and she lives by impossibles, and if she shrinks from impossibles her own vigor will shrink and die. 1911, J. H. Jowett, “Turning Back”, in Homiletic Review, volume 61, page 392
   Aristotle (1952), in his Nicomachean Ethics, described the relation between will and choice: a Choice cannot relate to impossibles, and if anyone said he chose them he would be thought silly; 2000, Kenneth D. Keith, Robert L. Schalock, Cross-cultural Perspectives on Quality of Life, page 292
   Dreams are made out of impossibles. We cannot reach the impossibles by using the analytical minds which are trained to deal with hard information which is currently available. 2010, The Journal of Parliamentary Information - Volume 56, page 20
2. A skateboard trick consisting of a backflip performed in midair.