The word adynaton, which refers to a jocular phrase that emphasizes the idea of impossibility, was adopted into English from Greek, where adynaton means “impossible,” a combination of a- meaning “not” and dynatos, which means “possible.” This Greek word derives from a root that means “to have power,” the source also of the English word dynamic. One Hungarian adynaton translates as “when it’s snowing red.” A Russian version translates as “when a crayfish whistles on top of a mountain.” In Serbian and Croatian, the same idea is expressed by a phrase rendered in English as “when grapes grow on willow.” The Roman poet Virgil expressed the idea of something doubly improbable with the idea of “when golden apples grow on oak trees.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Adynaton Origin and Meaning”
Earlier we were talking about adenatons. Those are joking allusions to an impossible event.
Like when pigs fly or when hell freezes over. And adenatin is a weird word. It’s spelled a-d-y-n-a-t-o-n.
And it comes from the Greek word for impossible.
And if you break that word down, then you can see that the A, the first A means not.
And then the dinaton is related to words like dynamic.
It has to do with power.
But here’s another great one.
Another great adenaton is from Hungarian.
You say, yeah, that’ll happen when it’s snowing red.
Oh, that’s a good one.
But you know what my favorite one is?
Is the Russian.
It’s something like when a crayfish whistles on top of a mountain.
And another one of my favorites is when grapes grow on willows, which I think is Croatian or Serbian, when grapes grow on willows.
That’s really good.
You know, you go all the way back to the Roman poets, and Virgil has something about when golden apples grow on oak trees, which is sort of doubly improbable.
I like that idea of improbable fruit.
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