unpopular

Etymology

It is formed from English un- + popular,^[2][3][4] the adjective coming from Latin populāris (“belonging to the people”), from populus (“people”).^[4][2] A less common form impopular is recorded from 1721.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Not liked or admired by many people: 1614, in George Chapman.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The word follows the sense of popular "liked by the people", which is recorded from about 1600.^[4] Etymonline and Dictionary.com date unpopular to the 1640s, later than the OED and Merriam-Webster,^[4][6][2][5] and the Shorter Oxford to the mid 17th century.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "not fitted to please the people", quoting Addison.^[7] The noun unpopularity followed in the mid 18th century.^[3]

Timeline

• 1614 – not liked by many people.^[2][5]
• 1721 – the rarer form impopular.^[4]
• mid 18th century – the noun unpopularity.^[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Not liked or approved of by most people, or by a particular group: The new parking rules were unpopular with shopkeepers.

Word family

• unpopularity
• unpopularly

Related words

• popular
• people
• populace

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
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. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ 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.