congenital

UK/kənˈdʒɛnɪt(ə)l/US/kənˈdʒɛnɪt(ə)l/

adjectiveC22 meaningsVery rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speech — con sits at #2,103leans written

Congenital means present from birth. A medical term, and a figurative insult.

The medical sense is precise, since a congenital condition is present at birth whether or not it is inherited, which is the difference from genetic. Congenital heart defects are the commonest kind. The figurative sense describes a deep-rooted habit, so a congenital liar is somebody who cannot help it, and that use is always disapproving. Acquired is the medical opposite, meaning developed later in life.

Definitions of congenital

1adjectivecongenitalPresent from birth.C2
“The condition is congenital and was picked up at the scan.”
technical in this meaning — an editor’s judgement
2adjectivedeepHaving a deep-rooted and apparently unchangeable habit.C2
“He is a congenital optimist.”

Where it comes from

Old English
cunnan
Middle English
connen
English
con
English, today
congenital

From congenitus + -al. From congenitus + -al, equivalent to con- + genital. con comes from Middle English connen, from Old English cunnan. Middle English connen, Old English cunnan (“to know, know how”), Proto-West Germanic kunnan (“recognize, know how”), Proto-Germanic kunnaną (“to know, know how”), Proto-Indo-European ǵneh₃- (“to know”) a doublet of can.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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