unripe

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English unrīpe,^[2][3] inherited from Old English unrīpe,^[2][3][4][5] formed from Old English un- + rīpe.^[3][4][6] The OED notes that it is cognate with, or was formed in the same way as, Middle Dutch onrijp, Dutch onrijp, Old High German unrīfi and German unreif.^[7][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of death, untimely or premature: in Old English glosses, unrípe deáð renders Latin immatura mors.^[8][4][7] Dictionary.com dates the word to before 1000.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The use for fruit and crops not ready for harvest is recorded from about 1275, in The Owl and the Nightingale,^[7][2] and Etymonline places it in the mid 13th century.^[4] The Middle English Dictionary also records oil made from green olives.^[2] The word then spread to anything still developing: to a person, state or intention before 1500, in Rolle's Psalter, to a person's age in 1548, and to other natural things in 1693.^[7] The old sense "untimely" lasted until the mid 17th century according to the Shorter Oxford,^[6] though the OED calls it only rare,^[7] and Johnson (1755) still gave "too early", quoting Sidney on an unripe death.^[9] His 1773 edition has "not seasonable; not yet proper", a sense close to the "unready, unseasonable" of Merriam-Webster Unabridged.^[9][3]

Timeline

• before 1000 – of death, untimely, premature.^[5][7]
• c. 1275 – of fruit and the like, not yet ripe.^[7][2]
• before 1500 – of a person or intention, not fully developed.^[7]
• 1548 – of a person's age, young, immature.^[7]
• 1693 – of other natural things, not yet fully developed.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of fruit, grain and the like: not yet ripe or ready to be harvested: The pears were too unripe to eat.^[7][3][6]
2. Still developing; immature: his unripe judgment.^[3][10][7]
3. Not ready; unprepared or unseasonable.^[3][10]
4. (rare or obsolete) Of death: premature, untimely.^[7][6][10]

Word family

• unripeness
• unripely

Related words

• ripe
• reap
• unripened

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins