untimely

Etymology

It is formed from English un- + timely,^[2][3][4][5] first as inherited from Middle English untimliche, an adverb.^[5][6] Old English had a similar untīdlīc (“unseasonable”), from the word that became tide,^[4][7][8] and the OED compares similar formations in Middle Swedish and Middle Danish.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

At an unsuitable time, unseasonably: about 1200, as an adverb, in the Trinity College Homilies.^[2][3] Etymonline dates the sense "done at an inappropriate time" to about 1200 as an adjective,^[4] but the OED records the adjective only from 1535.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The sense "before the proper or natural time" came in the 16th century: the adjective was used of unripe fruit in Coverdale's Bible (1535), of premature births (1538) and of death or fate (1548),^[2][4] and the adverb "prematurely" is recorded from before 1586, in Sidney's Arcadia.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave the adjective as "happening before the natural time", quoting Dryden on a knight's "untimely fate".^[9] The meaning "unseasonable for the time of year", of frost or blight, appeared in 1576, and "ill-timed, inopportune" in 1581;^[2] from 1827, in Scott, an untimely hour is one unusually late or early.^[2][5] The Shorter Oxford now labels the adverb archaic.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – adverb, at an unsuitable time.^[2]
• 1535 – adjective, of fruit: premature, unripe.^[2]
• 1548 – adjective, of death or fate: premature.^[2]
• 1576 – adjective, of frost or blight: unseasonable.^[2]
• 1581 – adjective, ill-timed, inopportune.^[2]
• before 1586 – adverb, before the proper time, prematurely.^[2]
• 1827 – adjective, of hours: unusually late or early.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Happening or done before the expected, natural or proper time; premature: the poet's untimely death at twenty-six.^[10][5][2]
2. Coming at a bad moment; ill-timed, inopportune: an untimely remark about money.^[10][5][2]
3. Unsuitable for the season; unseasonable: untimely snow in May.^[5][2]
4. Of an hour: unusually late or early.^[5][2]

Adverb

1. Before the proper time; prematurely.^[10][5][2]
2. (archaic) At an unsuitable time; inopportunely.^{[10][5][3][2]}

Word family

• untimeliness

Related words

• timely
• time
• tide

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 r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ 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 d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins