irredeemable

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   impossible to remedy, recover, reform, or save

   The water damage was so extensive that the archive was judged irredeemable.

2. 2
   adj

   finance: not repayable at a stated time or not convertible into coin or another form of money

   Investors received an irredeemable annuity that paid income without returning the principal.

Formed from ir- ('not') + redeemable. Redeem comes through Anglo-French from Latin redimere ('to buy back'), so irredeemable first meant something that could not be bought back or discharged and later broadened to anything beyond remedy.

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