Etymologically
Log in

unborn

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 22:56. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ʌnˈbɔːn/, /ˈʌn/[1]
  • US: /ʌnˈbɔːrn/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English unboren,[2][3][4] inherited from Old English unboren,[5][2][6] formed from Old English un- + boren, that is "not" and born.[5][7][8] Boren is a past participle of beran (“to bear”).[5][7] The OED compares Old Frisian ungebern and unberen, Dutch ongeboren, Middle Low German ungebōren and unbōren, Old High German ungiboran, German ungeboren and Old Norse úborinn;[7] Bosworth–Toller compares Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌰𐌽𐍃 (unbaurans).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a child, not yet born, still in the womb: Old English, in King Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care.[7] Bosworth–Toller quotes Ða unborenan bearn, the unborn children, from the same text.[6]

Semantic evolution

The Old English word already meant not yet born, and as a plural noun, the unborn, those yet to be born; the OED finds the noun in a royal charter of Queen Eadgifu,[7] although Etymonline dates the noun only to the early 14th century.[5] In early Middle English it also meant never born, deprived of birth, often in proverbs such as better unborn than untaught (before 1250),[7] and Etymonline records the senses "stillborn" and "not reborn spiritually" by the late 13th century.[5] Chaucer used the word five times and Gower four times.[4] The figurative sense, of times or things still to come, appears in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 (1598),[7] and Johnson (1755) defined it as "not yet brought into life; future; being to come", quoting Richard II.[9] From 1683 it was also used of what exists without having been born.[7][2]

Timeline

  • Old English – of a child, not yet born.[7][5]
  • Old English – noun, the unborn, those not yet born.[7]
  • before 1250 – never born, deprived of birth.[7]
  • late 13th century – stillborn; not reborn spiritually.[5]
  • 1598 – figurative, still to come, future.[7]
  • 1683 – existing without having been born.[7]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Not yet born; still in the womb: an unborn calf.[10][2][7]
  2. Still to come in the future: decisions that will affect people still unborn.[10][2][7]
  3. Existing without having been born.[2][7]

Noun

  1. the unborn: those not yet born, considered together, especially fetuses in the womb.[7][8]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins