unseasonable

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English unsesonable, also spelled unsesounable,^[2][3] formed from English un- + seasonable.^[4][5][6][7] The base is from Middle English sesounable,^[2][3] which Etymonline takes from Old French saisonable and Anglo-Norman seisonnable,^[7] and the OED forms from season and -able.^[4] Etymonline traces the noun, through seison, to Latin satiō (“a sowing, planting”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Inappropriate to the time or occasion: before 1382, in the Wycliffite Bible's Psalm 118, "in vncesounable tyme of werking", where the manuscript has been altered to cesounable.^[2] This is earlier than the OED's first record of the adjective, about fish out of season, from about 1450;^[4] Etymonline dates the word to the mid-15th century.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The Middle English word covered both what came at the wrong time and foodstuffs that were not in season: in 1423 a London cook was presented for selling onsesynable mete.^[2] A sense "not properly matured" was applied to malt in 1464,^[2] and the OED records it from 1515 to 1548.^[4] The application to weather appeared in the early 16th century, in Fabyan's chronicle, where the word often meant stormy or tempestuous.^[4][7] Johnson (1755) separated "not suitable to time or occasion" from "not agreeable to the time of the year".^[8] Collins now gives the weather sense first.^[9]

Timeline

• before 1382 – inappropriate to the time or occasion.^[2] The OED's first quotation for this sense is from 1561,^[4] and Etymonline dates it to the mid-15th century.^[7]
• 1423 – of food, not in season.^[2] The OED's first quotation, of fish, is from about 1450.^[4]
• 1464 – of malt, perhaps tainted or not properly matured.^[2]
• before 1513 – of weather, not appropriate to the time of year.^[4][7]
• before 1616 – of a time, not suitable for the action in question, in Shakespeare's King John.^[4]
• before 1634 – as an adverb, out of season, in Chapman's Bussy D'Ambois.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of weather: not usual or suitable for the time of year: an unseasonable frost in late May.^[9][4]
2. Coming at the wrong moment; untimely, inopportune: She called at an unseasonable hour.^[9][3][4]
3. Of fish or other food: not in season.^[3][4][5]
4. (obsolete, 1515–1548) Not properly matured; unseasoned.^[4][5]

Word family

• unseasonableness
• unseasonably

Related words

• seasonable
• season

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins