Contextualizebeta

uncouth

adj
/ʌnˈkuːθ/

Etymology

From Middle English uncouth, from Old English uncūþ (“unknown; unfamiliar; strange”), from Proto-West Germanic *unkunþ, from Proto-Germanic *unkunþaz (“unknown”), equivalent to un- + couth. The modern pronunciation does not show /aʊ/, the usual development of the Middle English vowel from the Great Vowel Shift. It is usually explained as a pronunciation taken from Northern English dialects, which did not undergo the diphthongization of the vowel.

  1. inherited from *unkunþaz✻
  2. inherited from *unkunþ✻
  3. inherited from uncūþ
  4. inherited from uncouth

Definitions

  1. Unfamiliar, strange, foreign.

    • If this uncouth forest yield anything savage, I will either be food for it or bring it for food to thee.
    • The trouble of thy thoughts this night in sleep Affects me equally; nor can I like This uncouth' dream, of evil sprung I fear […]
    • There was a delicious sensation of mingled security and awe with which I looked down, from my giddy height, on the monsters of the deep at their uncouth gambols.

  2. Clumsy, awkward.

  3. Unrefined, crude.

    • I don't want to associate with uncouth people.
    • Harsh words, though pertinent, uncouth appear: / None please the fancy, who offend the ear.
    • If Yule found it delightful, why did Kipling find it uncouth?

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at uncouth. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01uncouth02awkward03uncomfortable04experiencing05undergoing06undergo07bear

A definitional loop anchored at uncouth. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at uncouth

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA