inalienable

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   unable to be surrendered, transferred, taken away, or denied, especially as a fundamental right

   The constitution treats freedom of conscience as an inalienable right.

2. 2
   adj

   linguistics: describing possession treated as an inherent or permanent relation, as with body parts or close kin in some languages

   The language marks inalienable possession differently for body parts and ordinary objects.

Borrowed in the seventeenth century from French inalienable, formed from in- ('not') + alienable. Alienable ultimately derives from Latin alienare ('to transfer to another'). Unalienable is an established, less common parallel form.

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