A. adj. 1. That cannot be accounted for or explained; inexplicable. Also absol.
1643. Milton, Divorce, II. xxi. Wks. 1851, IV. 120. The unaccountable and secret reasons of disaffection between man and wife.
1689. [see UNACCOUNTED 2].
1709. Addison, Tatler, No. 123, ¶ 7. Those unaccountable Antipathies which some Persons are born with.
1776. Dalrymple, Ann. Scot., I. 9. To this hardy atchievement, an unaccountable inactivity succeeded.
1834. Lytton, Pompeii, I. v. 25. A sudden and unaccountable gloom came over each as they thus gazed.
1871. Tylor, Prim. Cult., I. 4. Where events look unaccountable,… to wait and watch in hope that the key to the problem may some day be found.
1895. Mrs. Wilson, 5 Years India, 281. The Hindu accounts for the unaccountable by calling it divine.
b. Of persons: Difficult to account for or make out; of a strange or puzzling disposition.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 1, ¶ 4. I … left the University, with the Character of an odd unaccountable Fellow, that had a great deal of Learning, if I would but show it.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), III. 329. Indeed, Mr. Lovelace, you are a very unaccountable man.
1774. Foote, Cozeners, II. Wks. 1799, II. 161. The family above … are a strange unaccountable tribe: Pray, who the deuce are they?
1801. Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T., Angelina, i. A self-willed, unaccountable romantic girl.
1873. ‘Ouida,’ Pascarèl, II. 240. We Italians are an unaccountable people.
2. Not liable to be called to account; irresponsible: a. Of power, etc.
1649. Milton, Eikon., xi. Wks. 1851, III. 420. Hee met at first with Doctrines of unaccountable Prerogative; in them hee rested, because they pleas’d him.
1695. J. Sage, Cyprianic Age, 67. The Acknowledgment of his Supream and Unaccountable Power within his own District.
1724. R. Fiddes, Morality, Pref. p. lxxxiii. If man had an unaccountable power … a single tyrant … might lawfully destroy all the rest.
1736. Gentl. Mag., VI. 303/2. They have never since made any Demand for the Deficiencies; not that We are to suppose that it is supply’d by the Revenue’s being unaccountable.
1861. Ld. Brougham, Brit. Const., viii. 105. Each estate should have powers independent of all the others, and in the exercise of which it is unaccountable and supreme.
b. Of persons, etc.
1677. Spottiswood’s Hist. Ch. Scot., App. 31. The King is an absolute and unaccountable Monarch.
1683. Brit. Spec., 173. Governed by one Supreme, Absolute, Independent, Undeposable, and Unaccountable Head.
1713. Berkeley, Guard., No. 3, ¶ 1. The Pleasures for which their Doctrines leave them [sc. abandoned young men] unaccountable.
1827. Pollok, Course T., II. 38. All else was … unaccountable, by instinct led. But man He made of angel-form erect.
† 3. Incalculable; uncountable. Obs.
169[?]. Temple, Pop. Discontents, ii. ¶ 6. It is unaccountable what Treasures it would save this Nation, by preventing so many Wars … abroad.
1722. Wollaston, Relig. Nat., v. § 14. To shew him … still more and more of these fixt lights, and to beget in him an apprehension of their unaccountable numbers.
B. sb. 1. An unaccountable person.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), V. 314. I never heard of or saw such a dear unaccountable.
1825. Brockett, N. C. Gloss., s.v.
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., s.v., He’s quite an unaccountable.
2. An unaccountable thing or event. rare.
1789. M. Cutler, in Life, etc. (1888), I. 448. It was an event, however, I could not fail of recording in my book of unaccountables.
1799. Mrs. J. West, Tale of Times, II. 250. It … must be set down in the catalogue of my unaccountables.
