ugliness

Etymology

It is formed from English ugly + -ness,^[2][3][4] as uglines, also uglinesse.^[5][3][6] The adjective, recorded from the mid-13th century as uglike, is of Scandinavian origin, from Old Norse uggligr (“dreadful, fearful”), from uggr (“fear, apprehension, dread”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Horror, dread, loathing: about 1325, in the Metrical Homilies.^[2] The sense "repulsive appearance" follows about 1340, in Rolle's Pricke of Conscience.^[2][6] Etymonline dates both senses to the late 14th century,^[3] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives the 14th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The noun followed its adjective, which first meant frightful and softened to "unpleasant to look at".^[3] The sense of horror and dread is found only until about 1425,^[2][4] apart from an isolated use in 1587 for a cause of horror.^[2][4] Middle English also had ugsomeness for dread and loathing, from the early 15th century.^[3] Moral repulsiveness is recorded from 1601,^[2][4] and Johnson (1755) lists "turpitude; loathsomeness; moral depravity" after "deformity".^[7] An ugly thing or feature is recorded in Hawthorne in 1855, in the OED,^[2] though the Shorter Oxford dates it to the mid-18th century.^[4] In dialect the word could mean bad temper, as in a Lincolnshire text of 1889.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1325 – horror, dread, loathing (obsolete by 1425).^[2]
• c. 1340 – repulsive appearance, as an abstract quality or in a particular person or thing.^[2]
• 1587 – a cause of horror or loathing (obsolete).^[2][4]
• 1601 – moral repulsiveness, wickedness.^[2][4]
• 1855 – an ugly thing or feature.^[2]
• 1889 – in dialect, bad temper.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality or state of being ugly; repulsive appearance: Nobody could overlook the ugliness of the concrete tower.^[5][2][4]
2. Moral repulsiveness or offensiveness.^[2][4][5]
3. An ugly thing or feature.^[5][2][4]
4. (dialect) Bad temper; disagreeableness.^[2]
5. (obsolete, c. 1325–1425) Horror, dread, loathing.^[2][4]
6. (obsolete) A cause of horror or loathing.^[2][4]

Related words

• ugly
• ugsome

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.