unrelenting

Etymology

It is formed from English un- + relenting, the prefix of negation and the present participle of relent.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The verb relent, first to melt or soften, is from Anglo-Norman relenter, from re- and a form of Latin lentus (“slow, supple”).^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of people, not giving way to kindness or mercy; harsh, stern: 1590, in Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great, Part 2.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the 1580s,^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1580–90.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The figurative relent, to become less harsh, dates from the 1520s, from the image of a hard heart melting with pity,^[3] and unrelenting first described people who would not soften in this way.^[2] By 1608 it was applied to personified things such as war or the law,^[2] and Shakespeare used it in 1594 for a physical substance that is hard or impenetrable, a sense now rare.^[2] From 1606 it also meant not slackening in vigour or determination; from 1609, in Daniel, it could mean not easing in intensity, the sense of unrelenting rain or unrelenting pressure.^[2][4] Johnson (1755) defined it as "hard; cruel; feeling no pity", quoting Henry VI for "unrelenting Clifford".^[7]

Timeline

• 1590 – of people, unyielding to compassion; harsh or stern.^[2]
• 1594 – of a physical substance, hard, impenetrable (now rare).^[2]
• 1606 – not slackening in vigour or determination.^[2]
• 1608 – of personified things such as war or the law, merciless.^[2]
• 1609 – not lessening in intensity or severity; unremitting.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not yielding to pity or compassion; stern and merciless: an unrelenting critic.^[8][4][2]
2. Not slackening in strength, pace or determination: They kept up an unrelenting campaign for reform.^[8][4][2]
3. Not easing in intensity; unremitting: a week of unrelenting heat.^[2][8]

Word family

• unrelentingly
• unrelentingness

Related words

• relent
• relentless

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b 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 Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins