uncouth
/ʌnˈkuːθ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.52 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
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."
- "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?"
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
uncouther (comparative)
more uncouth (comparative)
uncouthest (superlative)
most uncouth (superlative)