Etymologically
Log in

unlawful

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 24 October 2026 at 18:43. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ʌnˈlɔːf(ə)l/, /ʌnˈlɔːfʊl/[1]
  • US: /ʌnˈlɑːf(ə)l/, /ʌnˈlɔːf(ə)l/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English un- (“not”) + lawful,[2][3][4][5] in Middle English unlauful, also unlaweful and in the north unlaghful.[6][5][7] lawful itself is formed from law and -ful, and the OED compares Old Norse lǫgfullr.[2][3] Old English had a noun unlagu (“violation of law, illegality, injustice; a bad law”),[8][2] which survived into Middle English as unlaue.[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Not lawful; forbidden or morally unacceptable: Etymonline dates it to about 1300,[2] and the MED's first quotation is from the Cursor Mundi (composed about 1325).[6] The OED's first record is in Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon (before 1387).[3]

Semantic evolution

From its first records the word covered both law and morals: Trevisa used it for what is illegal, for what is wicked or sinful, and of a person who does not obey the law.[3] The MED's quotations range from what was forbidden by Jewish or church law to what was forbidden by civil law, and include unlawful love, adulterous love, and an unlawful hunter, a poacher.[6] Of a child, "illegitimate" is recorded from before 1425,[3] and a glossary of 1440 renders it with the Latin words for illegitimate and illicit.[6] An adverb unlawful, unlawfully, is found from 1477 to 1496.[3] The phrase unlawful assembly, a meeting of three or more people to commit an unlawful act, appears in statutes from the late 15th century.[2] From 1729 the word was also used of things contrary to rules, irregular.[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "contrary to law; not permitted by the law".[9]

Timeline

  • c. 1300 – contrary to law, illegal.[2]
  • before 1387 – illegal; immoral; of a person, not obeying the law (Trevisa).[3]
  • before 1425 – of a child, illegitimate.[3]
  • 1477 – adverb, unlawfully (last recorded 1496).[3]
  • late 15th century – unlawful assembly in statutes.[2]
  • 1729 – contrary to rules, irregular.[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Not allowed by law; illegal: an unlawful arrest.
  2. (law) Punishable as a crime.
  3. Against accepted morality or convention; illicit.
  4. Of a person, acting against the law or without legal authority.
  5. (archaic) Born outside marriage; illegitimate.
  6. Contrary to rules or normal procedure; irregular.

Word family

  • unlawfully
  • unlawfulness

Usage notes

Random House distinguishes the near-synonyms: illegal refers most specifically to breaking statutes or, in sport, written rules, unlawful to what the law does not sanction, illegitimate to what lacks a legal or traditional right, and illicit to what is not permitted, now mostly of the way regulated things are done.[10][7] Grammarphobia reports that Bryan Garner calls illegal and unlawful fundamentally synonymous, but that Black's Law Dictionary gives unlawful two further senses, criminally punishable and involving moral turpitude, which in Garner's view make it less useful.[11][12]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e 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)
  7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  8. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  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. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  11. ^ O'Conner, Patricia T.; Kellerman, Stewart, The Grammarphobia Blog, grammarphobia.com, p. "How illegal is unlawful?", 10 July 2013
  12. ^ Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West