Why does the common meaning of "impertinent" have nothing to do with "pertinent"?
Every time I want to use an antonym to "pertinent", I think of "impertinent", which I don't like to use because of its more common meaning. How did "impertinent" come to mean "intrusive or presumptuous, as persons or their actions; insolently rude; uncivil" (Dictionary.com)?
Etymology Online suggests that the use of impertinent to mean "rudely bold" is connected to similar use in French, and happened around 1680. It also offers the tantalizing tidbit
especially by Molière, from notion of meddling with what is beyond one's proper sphere.
Now the first thing I think of when I see "Molière" is intermediate French class and the play Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. Jean-Batiste Poquelin aka Molière was a French playwright whose satiric plays centered around characters who were taken out of their 'natural' element. In Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, for instance, is the story of a middle class man who aspires to the aristocracy. He is like a fish out of water as he tries to learn to be a gentleman, and much hilarity ensues.
If we look closely at the etymology of the word, it is not too much of a stretch to equate "not pertaining to something" with "not a part of something." The association with Molière's works certainly could have helped impertinence take on this slightly altered meaning.
So it would seem that the "intrusive or presumptuous" meaning of impertinence is fashionably French.
The meaning of impertinent are two:
- not showing proper respect; rude
- (formal) not pertinent to a particular matter; irrelevant
Hers was an impertinent question.
Talk of rhetoric and strategy is impertinent to this process.
At least in the second case, impertinent is an antonym of pertinent.
The original meaning of the word is the second one; the meaning then slowly changed to the first one.
The Wiktionary has a note about the usage of impertinent:
As many older speakers will consider definition 2 incorrect, avoiding the word altogether may be advisable. The construction "not pertinent" is one possible alternative.