unruly

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English unreuli, also unreweli and unruli,^[2][3][4] formed from Middle English un- (“not”) + reuli (“amenable to rule, disciplined”),^[3][5][2][4] the adjective being from reule (“rule”), now rule,^[3][5][4] with the adjective suffix -y.^[5][6][7] Etymonline and the Oxford Dictionary of English take the base as the obsolete adjective ruly, amenable to rule,^[8][9] while the revised OED analyses it as un- + rule + -y and treats ruly as later.^[10] The OED also notes that some spellings were remodelled after rule and the suffix -ly.^[10] Skeat calls it a coined word, and notes that Fabyan has “unruled”.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a person, group or place, disorderly, without proper governance: in a letter of Lord Grey of Ruthin of 1400, warning that Wales would soon be an unruely Cuntree.^[10][2] Etymonline dates it to about 1400,^[8] and Dictionary.com to 1350–1400.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word spread from people to their circumstances and faculties: by 1439 it described a turbulent, ungoverned situation, and before 1450 an ungovernable heart or tongue.^[10] The tongue is the subject of a much-quoted biblical line, The tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil (James 3:8).^[12] In the 16th century it was used of animals that behaved as if untamed (1544) and of awkward, unmanageable things (1548),^[10] and Shakespeare applied it to stormy weather in Lucrece (1594).^[10] From 1596, in Spenser, it was also used of a pain or disease that could not be cured, a sense obsolete by the mid-19th century.^[10] Johnson (1755) defined it as turbulent, ungovernable, licentious and tumultuous, quoting Spenser.^[13] A noun use, the unruly as a class (1548) or an unruly person (1611), has also been recorded.^[10]

Timeline

• 1400 – of a person, group or country, disorderly, ill-disciplined.^[10][2]
• 1439 – of a situation or event, turbulent, anarchic.^[10]
• before 1450 – of the heart, tongue or an emotion, ungovernable.^[10]
• 1544 – of an animal, intractable.^[10]
• 1548 – of a thing, unmanageable; noun, the unruly, disorderly people.^[10]
• 1594 – stormy, tempestuous.^[10]
• 1596 – of a disease, incurable (obsolete by 1844).^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not easily controlled or disciplined; disorderly or disobedient: an unruly class of fourteen-year-olds.^[14][5][10]
2. Of things, hard to manage or keep in order: unruly curls.^[10][7]
3. Of an occasion or situation, turbulent and without order.^[10][5]
4. Of weather, stormy or wild.^[10]
5. (obsolete, 1596–1844) Of a pain or disease, impossible to treat or cure.^[10][15]

Word family

• unruliness

Related words

• rule
• ruly
• unruled
• misrule

Usage notes

Dictionary.com distinguishes it from three near-synonyms.^[7] Unruly suggests persistently disorderly behaviour or character, as in unruly hair.^[7] Intractable suggests a determined resistance to being guided, or a problem that will not respond to attempts to solve it.^[7] Recalcitrant and refractory imply open rebellion against authority, recalcitrant being the stronger, with stubborn and total refusal, while refractory leaves room for eventual compliance.^[7]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press