unspoken

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English unspoken, also unspokun,^[2] formed from English un- + spoken, the past participle of speak.^[3][4][5][6] The OED and Etymonline compare ongesproken and ungesproken,^[3][4] and the OED also ungesprochen.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Not said aloud, left out of what is said: about 1449, in Reginald Pecock's Repressor.^[3][2] Etymonline dates the word to the early 15th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word was used mostly in phrases, to be unspoken (passed over) or unspoken of (not discussed).^[2] The sense "not spoken of" is recorded in English from 1487, in a manuscript of Barbour's Bruce,^[3][7] and is now rare;^[6] "not spoken to, not addressed" followed by 1617.^[3][7] Scots used it for a person who had not spoken (1597).^[3][7] In Aberdeenshire unspoken water was water from under a bridge used by both the living and the dead, fetched without a word to a sick person as a cure, and the practice is also reported from Yorkshire in 1895.^[8] The modern use is mostly of what is understood without being said, as an unspoken agreement.^[5][9]

Timeline

• c. 1449 – not expressed in speech, unsaid.^[3][2]
• 1487 – not spoken of (now rare).^[3][7]
• 1597 – Scottish: without having spoken (rare).^[3][7]
• before 1617 – not spoken to, unaddressed.^[3][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Understood or agreed without being put into words; tacit: an unspoken rule that nobody parks in the boss's space.^[9][5]
2. Not said aloud; unuttered.^[9][5][3]
3. Not spoken to or addressed, often followed by to.^[5][3]

Related words

• speak
• spoken
• outspoken

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 d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b 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 Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins