uncouth

Definition

Unfamiliar, strange, foreign.

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.

Example Sentences

• "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."