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Etymology and origin of the English word unmarked

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1480 R. Cely, letter, in the Cely Letters
Ultimate origin
English un-,marked

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ʌnˈmɑːkt/[1]
  • US: /ʌnˈmɑːrkt/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English un- + marked, "not" and the past participle of the verb mark,[2][3][4][5][6] first in late Middle English as unmarked, with merken, marken for the verb.[5][6] Similar formations are Old Norse úmarkaðr,[2][3] Swedish omärkt and Danish umærket.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bearing no mark, especially no identifying mark: 1480, in a letter of R. Cely.[2] Etymonline dates the word to about 1400,[3] and Dictionary.com to 1400–50.[6]

Semantic evolution

Beside the literal sense, the word meant unnoticed or unobserved from 1533, in More,[2][3] the sense Johnson (1755) gave for it, with quotations from Sidney and Dryden.[7] From the late 18th century it also meant not set apart or distinguished from others.[2][4] New senses followed the senses of the verb mark: unassessed, of school or examination work (1888), and in team games, of a player not shadowed by an opponent (1890).[2] In linguistics since Bloomfield (1933) an unmarked form is the member of a pair that lacks the distinctive feature the other has.[2][4] In American police slang an unmarked is an unmarked police car.[8]

Timeline

  • 1480 – bearing no mark.[2] Etymonline dates the word to about 1400.[3]
  • 1533 – unnoticed, unobserved.[2][3]
  • 1791 – not distinguished from others by some feature.[2]
  • 1888 – of written work, not given a mark; uncorrected.[2]
  • 1890 – sport, of a player not marked by an opponent.[2]
  • 1933 – linguistics, lacking the positive feature in a binary opposition.[2]
  • 1990 – noun, an unmarked police car.[8]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Having no mark, especially no sign or label that identifies it: The detectives followed in an unmarked van.[9][5][2]
  2. Of a road: having no sign giving its name or route number.[5]
  3. Not noticed; unobserved: Her birthday passed unmarked.[9][5][2]
  4. Of schoolwork or an examination paper: not yet graded or corrected.[2]
  5. (sport) Of a player: not closely guarded by an opponent.[2]
  6. (linguistics) Of a form in a pair of opposites: lacking the distinctive feature that the other, marked form has, and so being the more basic or neutral one.[2][4]

Noun

  1. (US police slang) An unmarked police car.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  8. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
Cite this entry

“Unmarked.” Etymologically, 1 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/unmarked. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

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