unkind

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English unkinde,^[2][3] inherited from Old English uncynde (“unnatural”),^[4][5][6] formed from un- (“not”) and the adjective that became kind.^[4][7] The revised OED explains it as partly a shortening of Middle English unikunde, from Old English ungecynde, and partly a new Middle English formation from un- and the same adjective.^[8][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Unnatural, not in keeping with the normal course of things: late Old English, in King Alfred's translation of Boethius, of a plant set in ground not its own.^[8][5][4]

Semantic evolution

The older senses follow the meaning of kind as "nature, kin".^[4][6] In Middle English the word was used of unseasonable weather (from about 1330), of poor soil and of things harmful, of foreigners (about 1300–1500), and of people who failed in natural duty: the ungrateful, the disloyal and undutiful children.^[8][4] Most of these senses died out between the 15th and 17th centuries, though the weather and soil senses survive in dialect.^{[8][9][10][11]} The modern sense, lacking in kindness or sympathy, is recorded from 1340,^[12][4] and Chaucer used the word 20 times and Gower 30, for unkind, unnatural, cruel, faithless or ungrateful.^[3] Shakespeare's line from Hamlet, "Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind", was quoted by Johnson (1755), who defined the word as not favourable or not benevolent.^[13][9]

Timeline

• late Old English – unnatural, contrary to the usual course of things.^[8]
• c. 1300 – ungrateful (obsolete by 1716); foreign, strange (obsolete by 1500); disloyal (obsolete).^[8]
• c. 1330 – of the weather, harsh, inclement; harmful, unfavourable.^[8]
• 1340 – lacking in kindness, unsympathetic.^[12][4]
• 1761 – of a plant or animal, not thriving.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Lacking kindness; unsympathetic, inconsiderate or cruel: It was unkind of him to laugh at her mistake.^[10][14][9]
2. (archaic) Of weather: harsh, not mild.^[10][14][8]
3. (dialect) Of soil: hard to work; of plants or animals: not thriving.^[10][14][8]
4. (obsolete, c. 1300–1716) Ungrateful.^[8][14][9]
5. (obsolete) Unnatural.^[8][9]

Word family

• unkindness

Related words

• unkindly
• kind
• kin
• kindred

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d 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)
12. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster