All 3 Uses of
intelligible
in
The Scarlet Letter
- These outbreaks of a fierce temper had a kind of value, and even comfort for the mother; because there was at least an intelligible earnestness in the mood, instead of the fitful caprice that so often thwarted her in the child's manifestations.†
p. 65.5 *intelligible = capable of being understood
- But the little stream would not be comforted, and still kept telling its unintelligible secret of some very mournful mystery that had happened—or making a prophetic lamentation about something that was yet to happen—within the verge of the dismal forest.†
p. 126.8unintelligible = not capable of being understoodstandard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unintelligible means not and reverses the meaning of intelligible. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
- With a hand's-breadth further flight, it would have fallen into the water, and have given the little brook another woe to carry onward, besides the unintelligible tale which it still kept murmuring about.†
p. 137.1