α. late Middle English–1600s immaculat, late Middle English– immaculate, 1600s imaculate; also Scottish pre-1700 immaculat.
β. late Middle English inmaculat, late Middle English–1500s inmaculate.
immaculateadj.
/ᵻˈmakjᵿlət/, U.S. /ᵻˈmækjələt/ 1.
a. Free from sin or wrongdoing; irreproachable; (frequently of the Virgin Mary or her womb) undefiled, pure.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > virtue > purity > [adjective]
cleanlyc888
unwemmedc950
clean971
lightOE
whiteOE
unfiledc1200
shire?c1225
sheenc1275
wemlessc1275
undefouled13..
undefoileda1325
purec1330
unbleckedc1380
unfouledc1380
clear1382
impollutec1384
unblemishedc1400
undefiledc1400
unspottedc1400
virginc1400
spotless?a1430
immaculate1441
uncorruptc1450
unpollushed1490
intemeratea1492
incorrupted1529
unmaculate1535
impolluted1548
crystallinec1550
incorrupt1550
uncorrupted1565
undistained1565
unstained1573
entire1587
taintless1590
untainted1590
stainless1599
unsmirched1604
intemerated1608
indepravate1609
chastea1616
uncurseda1628
undishonested1631
untaint1638
Adamical1649
sincere1649
undebaucheda1656
unaccurseda1674
amiantal1674
unsoiled1699
unpolluted1732
1441 in J. B. Sheppard Let. Bks. Monastery Christ Church Canterbury (1889) 174 (MED) [The] berer of thys letter..for the zeele that I have to the immaculate place that he come fro, I treted as my brother.
c1475 in Archiv f. das Studium der Neueren Sprachen (1913) 130 311 The king of heuyn blysse..Into a vyrgyns wombe immaculate, Descendyd.
a1500 in F. J. Furnivall Polit., Relig., & Love Poems (1903) 113 (MED) Heyle towre of Dauid & vyrgyn immaculat!
1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry VII f. lvi Their counsayll infected & corrupted the kynges clene and immaculate conscience.
1639 P. Massinger Unnaturall Combat v. ii. sig. K4v Take not thy flight so soone immaculate spirit.
1653 H. More Second Lash of Alazonomastix (1713) 235 This Life is pure and immaculate Love, and this Love is God.
1743 E. Young Complaint: Night the Fifth 14 The World's infectious; few bring back at Eve Immaculate, the Manners of the Morn.
1781 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall IV. xxiii. 79 The exercise of their sacred functions requires an immaculate purity.
1811 Monthly Anthol. Mar. 165 He [sc. Juvenal] was not quite so immaculate himself, as to take very deep offence at the black spots that he discerned in others.
1850 A. Jameson Legends Monastic Orders 188 Convinced of his wife's immaculate purity.
1909 E. W. Wilcox Poems of Progress 36 You came to earth, a soul immaculate, Baptized in fire, with some great part to play.
1979 J. Lees-Milne Diary 10 July in Deep Romantic Chasm (2003) 37 If you are royal you must be immaculate, or expect the consequences.
2005 ‘Sultan’ Tyger vs Al Qaeda xxv. 235 He is immaculate. We have never heard anything negative about him!
b. Free from vice, sin, etc. Now somewhat rare (chiefly historical).
ΚΠ
1529 tr. Erasmus Exhort. Studye Script. To Rdr. p. vii We may here lyve pure and immaculate from all vices and iniquites.
1579 W. Fulke Heskins Parl. Repealed in D. Heskins Ouerthrowne 373 As they were imaculate from faults of their bodies, so he..was immaculate from sins.
1627 R. Winterton tr. J. Gerhard Meditations xxxvii. 369 If the body bee not kept pure and immaculate from whoredome, the soule cannot bee ardent in Prayer.
1683 W. Kennett tr. Erasmus Witt against Wisdom 95 The Virgin Mary..was preserved immaculate from Original sin.
1736 Gentleman's Mag. June 347/1 Who ever keeps His body clean, immaculate from lust, The temple of the holy ghost..shall receive.
1790 E. Gibbon Misc. Wks. (1814) III. 507 His chastity was immaculate from sin or scandal.
1839 F. B. Head Narrative ix. 244 Two judges, who, above all people, ought to be immaculate from political sin.
1907 Ars Quatuor Coronatorum 20 290 The religion of the Temple is..clean and immaculate from all the articles, vices and sins aforesaid.
2008 E. Cameron in M. Sæbø Hebrew Bible/Old Test. II. xv. 335 The late medieval period fostered a number of ‘new’ doctrines, most notably that Mary had been conceived immaculate from original sin.
2.
a. Spotlessly clean; perfectly neat and tidy.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > [adjective]
cleanc897
fair?c1225
netc1330
cleanly1340
unspotted1382
blotless?a1400
unwemmeda1400
spotlessc1400
neat1494
unblotted1548
unstained1555
stainlessa1586
exempt1586
unsoiledc1592
undefiled1596
unsullied1598
dirtlessa1618
immaculatea1631
innocent1645
unsmeared1648
unsmutched1809
speckless1827
spandy-clean1838
unblackened1864
soilless1868
smudgeless1924
clinical1932
squeaky clean1975
a1631 J. Donne Poems (1633) 344 In immaculate clothes, and Symetrie Perfect as circles.
1733 A. Pope Impertinent 15 A white-glov'd Chaplain..in immaculate trim, Neatness itself impertinent in him.
1823 Manch. Iris 7 June 186/3 He was well dressed in all other respects, immaculate waistcoat,..silk stockings in perfect health.
1856 H. B. Stowe Dred I. iv. 52 Every plait of her immaculate cap.
1905 W. J. Locke Morals of Marcus Ordeyne xii. 146 She puts her foot upon my sartorially immaculate knee.
1972 I. Levin Stepford Wives ii. 97 Her immaculate living room—cushions all fluffed, woodwork gleaming.
2010 Independent 2 Aug. 7/3 Honey-coloured hair gathered into an immaculate chignon.
b. Chiefly Entomology and Zoology. Without contrasting spots or marks; unspotted.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > animal body > markings or colourings > [adjective] > dappled or spotted > having no dots
immaculate1690
unpunctated1848
the world > life > biology > physical aspects or shapes > marks > [adjective] > marked with points or dots > not spotted or punctate
immaculate1690
impunctate1819
1690 L. Plukenet Let. 3 June in W. Derham Philos. Lett. betw. Ray & several Correspondents (1718) 230 Flowers..of a most immaculate white.
1769 J. Berkenhout Outl. Nat. Hist. Great Brit. & Ireland I. 154 Small green oak moth. First Wings green, immaculate.
1826 T. Bewick Hist. Brit. Birds (ed. 6) I. 55 He describes the male bird to be of an immaculate white.
1828 J. Stark Elements Nat. Hist. II. 198 Abdomen..with spots and angulated bands of brown and white; legs immaculate.
1847 J. Hardy in Hist. Berwickshire Naturalists' Club 2 No. 5. 236 Thorax narrowed towards the base, immaculate.
1916 Bird-lore 18 362 The spots of the upperparts are obscure, and the brown of the belly duller and usually immaculate.
1996 R. D. Bartlett & P. P. Bartlett Turtles & Tortoises 82/2 The plastron of the hatchling yellow-bellied sliders bears ocelli anteriorly but is usually immaculate posteriorly.
2001 C. S. Guppy & J. H. Shepard Butterfiles Brit. Columbia 207/2 For the Immaculate Green Hairstreak, undersides of the wings have an apple-green ground colour.
3.
a. Of a manuscript, book, etc.: completely free from textual errors.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > literary and textual criticism > textual criticism > version of text > [adjective] > altered by copyist or printer > erroneously > not
uncorrupt1596
incorrupt1624
immaculate1684
1684 N. S. tr. R. Simon Crit. Enq. Editions Bible xviii. 176 The Translation of the 70. which was preserved incorrupt and immaculate in the Books of the Learned.
1778 G. Colman in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Dramatick Wks. II. 145 The copy of 1651 corrects various passages which appear nonsense in that of 1637... Not that it is immaculate.
1797 H. Lemoine Typogr. Antiq. 96 In 1744, he [sc. Robert Foulis] brought out his famous immaculate edition of Horace.
1841–8 F. Myers Catholic Thoughts II. iii. xiii. 49 They [sc. the Jews] believed..that all the manuscripts of their Law were immaculate, and the same to a letter.
1862 J. H. Burton Book-hunter (1863) 65 Editions which claim a sort of canonization as immaculate, as for instance the Virgil of Didot and the Horace of Foulis.
1913 Sc. Hist. Rev. 11 100 There surely should not be much difficulty in presenting an almost immaculate text considering that Drummond prepared his volumes of verse for the press.
1996 A. C. Crombie Sci., Art & Nature in Medieval & Mod. Thought xiv. 288 Agnès Bresson has published a major and immaculate edition..of Peiresc's letters to the philologist Claude Saumaise.
b. Free from flaws or mistakes; perfect, faultless; impeccable.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > perfection > [adjective] > pure or flawless
lutter971
unwemmedc1000
fair?c1225
upright?c1225
purec1300
without lackc1300
completec1380
defaultlessa1425
flush?1550
undefective1599
impeccable1620
indefectivea1641
defectless1651
virginala1659
flawless1659
unflawed1665
indefectuous1685
unblighted1785
immaculate1791
indefectible1833
shadeless1894
flukeless1895
intacta1941
pedicured1988
1791 J. Mackintosh Vindiciæ Gallicæ Introd. p. xiii For the delivery of the peerless and immaculate Antoinetta..from the durance vile in which she has so long been immured in the Thuilleries.
1836 R. Gordon Let. to Viscount Melbourne on Liberty of Subj. 61 Lord Brougham, the immaculate abuser of sinecures.
1843 U.S. Mag. & Democratic Rev. Nov. 483/1 A sumptuous edition of the New Testament printed in gold on porcelain paper of most immaculate beauty.
1856 P. E. Dove Logic Christian Faith i. i. §2. 48 The Sceptical philosophy is by no means so immaculate.
1925 Amer. Mercury July 304/1 James Madison..dressed in such immaculate taste and behaving with such perfect decorum that he won from the French minister the nickname of ‘the cardinal’.
1967 Billboard 8 July 26/3 Simon and Garfunkel ended the first evening's show with a delicate and immaculate set.
1992 C. Sprawson Haunts of Black Masseur (1993) vii. 256 Weissmuller himself was an immaculate swallow diver.
2009 Southern Reporter (Scotl.) (Nexis) 18 Feb. Razor-sharp diction and immaculate timing make for a performance to delight any Savoyard.
Compounds
Immaculate Heart n. (a) the heart of the Virgin Mary, as an object of or focus for religious devotion; frequently in Immaculate Heart of Mary; cf. Sacred Heart n. 1; (b) used as (part of) the name of religious orders, churches, or schools. [After French Cœur Immaculé (1681 (in St Jean Eudes, who propagated the devotion) or earlier with reference to the heart of the Virgin Mary).]
ΚΠ
1806 C. Heath Monmouthshire 103 The confraternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary have lately procured from Munich, a beautiful statue of their sweet Patroness carved in wood, and richly painted and gilt.
1840 Inquirer Jan. 46/2 In Paris, ‘a confraternity of Prayers,’ established in honour ‘of the immaculate heart of our Lady’.
1858 G. Tickell tr. Month of Sacred Heart of Jesus 135 O Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.
1969 Tucson (Arizona) Daily Citizen 15 Oct. 41/3 Immaculate Heart girls don't have much choice—they wear uniforms.
1997 Latin Mass Summer 28/3 Let us today commend this intention to the Immaculate Heart of the Mediatrix of all graces.
2013 Orange County (Calif.) Reg. (Nexis) 12 Dec. For Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Spanish-language service in the 1,200-seat sanctuary held special significance.
immaculate lamb n. [after post-classical Latin agnus immaculatus (Vulgate: 1 Peter 1:19), itself after Hellenistic Greek ἀμνὸς ἄμωμος (New Testament)] used as an epithet of Christ (cf. lamb n.1 3a).
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > Christian God > the Trinity > the Son or Christ > [noun] > as lamb
the LambOE
immaculate lamb?a1475
Passover1539
?a1475 Ludus Coventriae (1922) 256 This immaculat lombe þat I xal ȝow ȝeve Is..bothe god and man.
1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection i. sig. Ciiiiv The immaculat lambe, christ Iesu the son of god.
1620 T. Wilson Saints by Calling 213 The Lord of life, the immaculate Lambe.
1742 R. Manning Moral Entertainm. III. lix. 246 He designed to..feast their Souls with the Sacred Flesh of the Immaculate Lamb, which takes away the Sins of the World.
1926 Catholic Hist. Rev. 12 433 There is everywhere offered up a clean oblation to the Lord of hosts, the Immaculate Lamb.
2004 B. S. Childs Struggle to understand Isaiah as Christian Script. vii. 98 Moab's consolation is the coming of the immaculate Lamb who will remove the sins of the world.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2014; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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adj.1441