Etymologically
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uneven

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Pronunciation

  • /ʌnˈivən/[1]

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
  • 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)