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Ineffability is the quality of something that surpasses the capacity of language to express it, often being in the form of ataboo or incomprehensible term.[1] This property is commonly associated withphilosophy,[2]theology,aspects of existence, and similar concepts that are inherently "too great", complex orabstract to be communicated adequately.[3]Illogical statements, principles, reasons and arguments may be considered intrinsically ineffable along withimpossibilities,contradictions andparadoxes.
An object, event or concept is ineffable if it cannot adequately be expressed by the use of natural language.[4]
The term (Latin:ineffābilis) is composed of the prefixin-, meaning 'not', and adjectiveeffābilis, meaning 'capable of being expressed'. In Greek, ἄρρητος (α depritive + ῥητὸς) means 'what cannot or should not be spoken of'.
Terminology describing the nature ofexperience cannot be conveyed properly in dualisticsymbolic language; it is believed that this knowledge is only held by the individual from which it originates.Profanity andvulgarisms can easily and clearly be stated, but by those who believe they should not be said, they are considered ineffable. Thus, one method of describing something that is ineffable is by usingapophasis, i.e. describing what it isnot, rather than what itis. An example is the name ofGod in Judaism, written asYHWH but substituted withAdonai ("the Lord") orHaShem ("the name") when reading.
In rhetorical and literary studies, ineffability has also been analyzed as a conventional stylistic and argumentative pattern, often referred to asthe Topos of ineffability (German:Unsagbarkeitstopos).
The ineffability about God is affirmed by theFirst Vatican Council's apostolic constitutionDei Filius:
The holy Catholic Apostolic Roman Church believes and confesses that there is one true and living God, Creator and Lord ofheaven and earth, almighty, eternal, immense,incomprehensible, infinite in intelligence, in will, and in all perfection, who, as being one, sole, absolutely simple and immutable spiritualsubstance, is to be declared as really and essentially distinct from the world, of supreme beatitude in and from Himself, andineffably exalted above all things which exist, or are conceivable, except Himself.
— Dei Filius, Chapter I
God's ineffability deals with His beinginfinite, invisible and incomprehensible.
Thisdogmatic definition comes from a longtime tradition:Tertullian,Athenagoras of Athens, andClement of Alexandria believed that ineffability is a property of God.[5]
