uninteresting

Etymology

It is formed from English un- + interesting,^[2][1][3] with the prefix in its sense "not".^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Not able to arouse interest: 1708, according to Etymonline.^[2] The OED's first quotation is from Edmund Burke's Observations on a Late State of the Nation (1769),^[1] and the Shorter Oxford dates the word to the mid 18th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The adjective interesting first meant "concerning, important": Etymonline dates it to 1711, and the OED's first quotation for an obsolete sense of the kind is from before 1635.^[2][1] Its main modern sense, attracting attention or curiosity, is recorded from 1724 in the OED and by 1751 in Etymonline,^[1][2] and uninteresting has had only the corresponding negative sense.^[2][1][3] The adverb uninterestingly and the noun uninterestingness followed in the late 18th century;^[3] the OED's first quotation for the noun is from 1793.^[4] In 1990s American hacker slang, an uninteresting problem was one that could be solved with enough time, without any creative thinking.^[5]

Timeline

• 1708 – not able to arouse interest.^[2] The OED's first quotation is from 1769, in Burke.^[1]
• 1991 – in hacker slang, of a computer problem: solvable with enough time, needing no creativity.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Arousing little or no interest or curiosity; dull, boring: a long and uninteresting lecture on tax law.^[6][7][8]
2. (computing slang) Of a problem: solvable with enough time, without needing any creative skill.^[5]

Word family

• uninterestingly
• uninterestingness

Related words

• interesting
• interest
• uninterested
• un-

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
6. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin