uncouth
/ʌnˈkuːθ/ adjective
Forms uncouther uncouthest
- adjective (archaic) Unfamiliar, strange, foreign.
- adjective Clumsy, awkward.
- adjective Unrefined, crude. “I don't want to associate with uncouth people.”
Synonyms
alien uncanny weird fremd aberrant abnormal anomalous as queer as Dick's hatband bizarre booky curious deviant discrepant eerie eldritch errant exceptional extraordinary fey forby coarse common rough-cut vulgar
Antonyms
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.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Unknown. [Obs.] "This uncouth errand." Milton.
- adjective Uncommon; rare; exquisite; elegant. [Obs.]
Etymology [OE. uncouth, AS. unc unknown, strange: un- (see Un- not) + c known, p. p. of cunnan to know. See Can to be able, and cf. Unco, Unked.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “uncouth”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details