uncivilized

Etymology

It is formed from English un- + civilized.^[2][3][4][5] Civilize is from Middle French civiliser,^[5][4] from civil, from Latin cīvīlis (“relating to a citizen”), from cīvis (“townsman”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Not civilized, barbarous: the first record is E. Topsell's Historie of Foure-footed Beastes (1607).^[5][6] Etymonline dates the word to about 1600,^[4] and Dictionary.com Unabridged to 1600–10.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The same sense was first carried by uncivil, "barbarous, savage", from the 1550s, but that adjective has shifted to "impolite", attested from the 1590s.^[4] Johnson (1755) gives two senses: not reclaimed from barbarity, quoting Pope on Britons who "kept unconquer'd, and unciviliz'd", and coarse or indecent, quoting Addison on "coarse, unciviliz'd words".^[7] Both remain: Collins separates peoples not yet civilized from a general lack of culture,^[8] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged adds places remote from civilization.^[6]

Timeline

• 1607 – barbarous, not civilized.^[5][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a people or society, not civilized; barbarous or savage.^[8][6][5]
2. Lacking culture or refinement; rude or coarse: telephoning at such an uncivilized hour.^[8][6][3]
3. Remote from civilization; wild: an uncivilized stretch of coast.^[6]

Word family

• uncivilizedly
• uncivilizedness

Related words

• civilized
• civilize
• uncivil
• civil

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins