unsay
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.51 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To cause something not to have been said; to make it so that one never said something (since this is physically impossible, usually in the subjunctive).
Example Sentences
- "And in the first place, you will be so good as to unsay that story about selling his head, which if true I take to be good evidence that this harpooneer is stark mad […]"
- "I wish I could unsay that."
- "There are some things I'd like to unsay... to my boss... right before he decided to fire me."
- "Certainly if Chriſts Apoſtle have ſet down but two, then according to his own words, though he himſelf ſhuld unſay it, and not only the Angel of Smyrna, but an Angel from Heaven ſhould bear us down that there be three, Saint Paul has doom'd him twiſe, Let him be accurſt [...]"
- "Unsay those haunting words."
Etymology
From Middle English unseyen, unseien, from Old English onseċġan (“to deny, renounce”), from Proto-West Germanic *andasaggjan (“to unsay, renounce, deny”), equivalent to un- + say. Cognate with Dutch ontzeggen (“to deny”), German entsagen (“to renounce, abjure”).