English term
conceivable
He observes that it “references a conflict without any conceivable mobilized army.”
Can anyone help me understand the phrase in the quotation marks, especially the word "conceivable"?
Thank you in advance
| 4 +9 | (scarcely) imaginable |
Yvonne Gallagher
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| Context |
philgoddard
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Non-PRO (2): Edith Kelly, acetran
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Responses
Ireland
right word, right place. everytime
Native in: English (Variants: US, Canadian, Irish, UK) 
Works in: French to English, Spanish to English, English, and 1 more.
(scarcely) imaginable
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Note added at 9 mins (2017-04-18 10:08:06 GMT)
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it would be good to have the rest of the sentence and what goes before and after inorder to give the best interpretation but
"a conflict without any conceivable mobilized army" possibly means
a conflict with no army mobilized
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Note added at 3 hrs (2017-04-18 13:04:27 GMT)
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Thanks to Phil for posting the context.
"...it references a conflict without any conceivable mobilized army." could be rewritten as:
this is or refers to a conflict (of class warfare) where it would be hard to imagine (OR it's highly unlikely that) an "army" or credible opposition can be organised
| agree |
philgoddard
: "References" appears to mean "is". "It" is class war.
2 hrs
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Many thanks for posting context!
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| agree |
Tony M
: Or, now we know, "no possibility of any army's being mobilized"
2 hrs
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Thanks.Yes, just added note
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| agree |
Tina Vonhof (X)
4 hrs
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Thanks:-)
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| agree |
Yasutomo Kanazawa
5 hrs
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Thanks:-)
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| agree |
Edith Kelly
5 hrs
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Thanks:-)
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| agree |
Suncana Kursan
6 hrs
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Thanks:-)
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| agree |
AllegroTrans
11 hrs
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Thanks:-)
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| agree |
David Hollywood
16 hrs
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Thanks:-)
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| agree |
lazarustke
1 day 14 hrs
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Thanks:-)
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Reference comments
United States
Six languages into flawless English
Native in: English
Works in: German to English, French to English, Spanish to English, and 4 more.
Context
| agree |
Tony M
: Ah yes, now THAT does make sense!
10 mins
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| agree |
Jack Doughty
45 mins
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| agree |
AllegroTrans
: This makes sense but pity asker has not responded to request for context
8 hrs
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| agree |
acetran
1 day 1 hr
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Discussion
Usually, when something is said to be 'not conceivable' or 'inconceivable', it means it is impossible for it to happen / exist.
That seems to be the negative sense here with 'without any' — although it is then slightly difficult to see just what the writer meant by it; obviously, it is difficult to have a war if you don't have armed forces to fight it! But how does that fit with the rest of your context surrounding this quote?