uneven

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English uneven, inherited from Old English unefen (“unequal, unlike, irregular”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed from Old English un- (“not”) + efen (“even”).^[2][4][3][7] The same formation appears in Old Frisian oniovn, Middle Dutch oneven, Middle Low German uneven, Old High German uneban, German uneben and Old Norse újafn.^[2][3][5] Etymonline thinks its Middle English senses may have been formed separately from the various senses of even.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Unequal, not properly matching or agreeing: in Old English, in the poem Christ III,^[2] before 900 according to Dictionary.com.^[5] The Oxford Dictionary of English glosses the Old English word as "not corresponding exactly".^[8]

Semantic evolution

From the late 14th century the word was used of acts or people for "unfair, unjust" (about 1380 to 1641),^[2][3] and of things diverging from a straight or parallel line (1390, in Gower, at first figuratively).^[2] The sense "not level, rough", of ground or roads, is recorded from about 1275,^[2] about 1300 in Etymonline, and was generalized to any surface in 1398, in Trevisa.^[2][3] Middle English also used it for odd numbers,^[3] a sense the OED first quotes in 1577.^[2] Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 (1598) applied it figuratively to immaterial things,^[2] and it came to mean varying in quality or not consistent, and of a contest, ill-matched.^[9][10] A verb uneven, to make uneven, is recorded from about 1440.^[2] In Shetland dialect uneven meant out of sorts.^[11]

Timeline

• Old English – unequal, not corresponding.^[2]
• c. 1275 – of ground, not level, rough.^[2]
• c. 1380 – of acts, unfair, unjust (obsolete by 1641).^[2]
• 1390 – not straight or parallel.^[2]
• 1398 – of any surface, not smooth.^[2]
• c. 1440 – verb, to make uneven.^[2]
• 1577 – of numbers, odd.^[2]
• 1598 – figurative, of immaterial things, sounds or style.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not level, flat or smooth: The cart lurched over the uneven track.^{[10][9][4][2]}
2. Not consistent or uniform; varying in quality: The band gave an uneven performance.^[10][9][2]
3. Not fairly matched; one-sided: an uneven fight.^[10][9]
4. Not straight or parallel.^[10][9][2]
5. Of a number, odd.^[9][4][2]
6. (archaic) Not equal in size, length or amount.^[10][4][2]
7. (obsolete, 1380–1641) Not fair; unjust.^[10][9][2]

Word family

• unevenly
• unevenness

Related words

• even

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 u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)