The word 'unintelligibility' is built upon the core Latin concept of understanding, intelligere, which itself is a compound of inter- (between) and legere (to gather, choose, read). The suffix -ibility was attached in Latin to form abstract nouns denoting a state of capacity. The Germanic negative prefix un- was later prefixed in English to reverse the meaning. Thus, the literal construction "not + capable of being understood" evolved into the modern abstract noun describing the quality of incomprehensibility, charting a journey from the concrete act of gathering meaning between things to the formal state of its impossibility.

Structure: un (not) + intellig (understand) + ibility (quality of being) un: A prefix of Germanic origin, via Old English, meaning "not." It functions as a negator. intellig: A root derived from the Latin verb intelligere, meaning "to understand, comprehend." ibility: A suffix complex from Latin -ibilitas, combining -ibilis (capable of being) and -itas (state, condition). It forms nouns indicating a state or quality.