unsafe

Etymology

It is formed from English un- + safe, from the prefix meaning "not" and the adjective safe.^[2][3][4] The adjective safe goes back, through Old French sauf, to Latin salvus (“uninjured, safe”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of actions: involving danger or risk: 1597, in Richard Hooker's Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1590s,^[3] and the Shorter Oxford to the late 16th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Soon after the sense of an action involving risk came the sense "not to be trusted, unreliable" (1615),^[2][4] and of ways and places, dangerous to go through (1621).^[2][3] The sense of a person exposed to danger is first quoted from Shakespeare's Macbeth.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "not secure; hazardous; dangerous", quoting Hooker and Milton.^[5] In law, from 1904, a verdict or conviction is unsafe when it may prove a miscarriage of justice, often in the phrase unsafe and unsatisfactory;^[2][4][6] since 1961 the word has described the part of the menstrual cycle when conception is most likely, and since 1981 sexual activity without protection against pregnancy or infection, as in unsafe sex.^[2][4]

Timeline

• 1597 – of actions, involving danger or risk.^[2]
• 1615 – unreliable, not to be trusted.^[2]
• before 1616 – of people, exposed to danger, in Shakespeare's Macbeth.^[2]
• 1621 – of ways or places, dangerous.^[2][3]
• 1904 – law, of a conviction, possibly a miscarriage of justice.^[2]
• 1981 – of sexual activity, unprotected.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not safe; dangerous or exposed to danger: The old pier was declared unsafe after the storm.^[6][7][2]
2. Not to be trusted; unreliable.^[7][2][4]
3. (law) Of a criminal conviction or verdict: based on inadequate or false evidence, and so possibly a miscarriage of justice.^[6][2][4]
4. Of sexual activity: done without protection against pregnancy or sexually transmitted infection, as in unsafe sex.^[2][4]

Related words

• safe
• safety
• save

References

1. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
6. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster