uncouth
Meaning
- Unfamiliar, strange, foreign.
- Clumsy, awkward.
- Unrefined, crude.
Synonyms
rough-cut
rather coarse
rather rough
rather rude
lack of manners
ill-shaped
odd-looking
Frequency
Pronounced as (IPA)
/ʌnˈkuːθ/
Etymology
In summary
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.
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Notes