unclean

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English unclene,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English unclǣne,^{[2][3][5][4][6]} formed from Old English un- (“not”) + clǣne (“clean”).^[3][7][4][8] The OED thinks it was partly modelled, especially in religious use, on Latin immundus (“unclean”),^[7] which it renders in the Old English Bede, alongside pollūtus in Leviticus.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Old English it already meant morally or spiritually impure, ritually impure, and of food or animals unfit to be eaten: the translation of Bede says that the law forbids many things to be eaten as unclean.^[7][6][4] The OED also has the physical sense, dirty or filthy, in Old English, in King Alfred's translation of Boethius,^[7] while Etymonline dates it from the mid-13th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The religious senses come from biblical use: the unclean spirit of the Gospels, a demon, is in the Old English Lindisfarne Gospels,^[7] and the leper's cry "unclean, unclean" from the Bishops' Bible of 1568.^[7] In Middle English the word also described air, water and bodies full of impurities.^[2] From about 1440 it was used of foul or noxious air and of land full of weeds.^[7] Later technical uses are a coated tongue (1776) and salmon out of condition at spawning time (1817).^[7] Johnson (1755) gave "foul; dirty; filthy" first.^[9] The moral sense, of a person, is now confined to biblical usage.^[7]

Timeline

• Old English – morally or ritually impure; of food, forbidden; dirty.^[7][6]
• Old English – unclean spirit, a demon, in the Lindisfarne Gospels.^[7]
• c. 1440 – of air, foul; of land, full of weeds.^[7]
• 1568 – the leper's cry unclean, unclean.^[7]
• 1776 – of the tongue, coated.^[7]
• 1817 – of salmon, out of condition after spawning.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not clean; dirty or filthy: Unclean water spread the disease through the camp.^[3][10][7]
2. Morally impure or sinful; unchaste.^[3][10][7]
3. Ritually impure or defiled, or forbidden as food by religious law: Pork is unclean under the dietary laws.^[3][7][10]
4. Of air or the environment: polluted or harmful.^[7]

Word family

• uncleanness
• uncleanly

Related words

• clean
• immund

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d 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 r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ 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 c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins