unassignable
- adjective
- /ˌʌnəˈsaɪnəbl/
- Her position at the company is unassignable because it is specifically tailored to her skills.
Examples
-
The museum owns several artifacts that are unassignable to other institutions.
-
She spoke the same strange, musical, unassignable dialect as the blacksmith.
Fiction book (1994) -
The rights to use this land are unassignable, meaning they cannot be sold or transferred.
Synonyms
A right that nobody can take away or give to someone else
Cannot be taken away or given to another person
You cannot give or sell it to another person
You cannot give it to someone else to use
A duty that cannot be given to another person
Cannot be sold or exchanged for money
Antonyms
How Transferable
Surface Forms
Morphology
unassignable = assignable (transparent) = un + assign + able
Negation of the adjective 'assignable' by the productive prefix 'un-' yields a regular and readily interpretable negative adjective.
Etymology
The word unassignable is made of un- ('not'), assign ('to give' or 'set aside') and -able ('able'), and assign is from the same root as sign, meaning 'a mark'. So, unassignable means 'not able to be given' to someone else, which is why it describes rights or property that cannot be moved to another person.