uncalled

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English uncallid,^[1][2] formed from English un- + called, the past participle of call.^[3][4][5][2] Similar formations are Swedish okallad, also Middle Swedish, and Danish ukaldet.^[3][2] The phrase uncalled-for is formed from un- and called for, the past participle form of that phrasal verb.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a person, not summoned, uninvited: first in the alliterative Wars of Alexander, in a manuscript that the Middle English Dictionary dates to about 1450 and the OED to 1400–1450;^[1][3] Etymonline gives about 1400.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word first described people who came without being called, as in Sidney's line "who, though they came not uncalled" that Johnson (1755) quoted for "not summoned; not sent for; not demanded".^[3][6] From the 16th century it was also used of things.^[3] In religious writing it meant not called by God or another power to a special function: in 1561, in Norton's translation of Calvin's Institution of Christian Religion; from 1854, of a minister, not invited to a pastorate.^[3][7] Etymonline traces the phrase uncalled for to this sense of not being summoned by some authority: what nobody has called for is unnecessary or intrusive.^[2] The phrase is recorded from before 1610, in Healey's translation of Theophrastus,^[3][2] and Collins, Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com enter uncalled-for as a headword of its own, while the Oxford Dictionary of English gives it as a sense of uncalled.^[7][5][8][9] In finance, from 1869, uncalled capital is capital not yet called up from shareholders.^[3][5]

Timeline

• 1400–1450 – of a person, not summoned, uninvited.^[3][1][2]
• 1561 – not called by some power to a special function or state.^[3][10]
• before 1586 – of things, not called or summoned.^[3]
• before 1610 – uncalled for, not asked for; unnecessary, intrusive.^[3][2] Merriam-Webster dates uncalled-for to about 1656 and Dictionary.com to 1600–10.^[5][8]
• 1854 – not invited to a pastorate.^[3][10]
• 1869 – of capital, not called up.^[3][10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not called, summoned or invited: He arrived uncalled and unwelcome.^[7][5][9][3]
2. uncalled-for: not needed or justified; gratuitous, and often rude or impertinent: That remark was uncalled-for.^[9][5][7][4]
3. (finance) Of capital, not yet called up for payment.^[7][5][3]
4. (ecclesiastical) Not called by God to the ministry; also, not invited to a pastorate.^[7][3]
5. Not called out or announced aloud.^[7]

Related words

• uncalled-for
• call

References

1. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b 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 f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
7. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)