Obsolete

How to spell obsolete

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce obsolete

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does obsolete mean?

1. adjectiveNo longer in use or no longer useful, having been replaced by something newer.

Obsolete in a sentence

• The company scrapped its obsolete accounting software last spring.

• Smartphones made the standalone satellite navigation unit almost obsolete.

Where does obsolete come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin obsoletus, the past participle of obsolescere, a verb meaning 'to fall into disuse, to grow old, or to wear away'. That verb was built from the prefix ob-, here adding a sense of completion, attached to a form related to solere, which meant 'to be accustomed' or 'to be usual'. The underlying image, then, is of something that has gradually stopped being customary and so has worn out of everyday use. English took the word up in the middle of the 1500s, at first describing worn-out or decayed things and soon settling into its modern sense of something out of date and replaced by a newer version. A useful spelling reminder is that the middle vowel comes from the Latin sol- root, so it is 'obsoLEte', not the very common misspelling 'obselete'.

How the word is built

• ob- (away, completely)
• sol- (from Latin solere: to be accustomed)
• -ete (from the Latin past-participle ending -etus)