Etymologically
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unveil

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Pronunciation

  • /ʌnˈveɪl/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English un- + veil, with the prefix expressing the reversal of an action.[2][3][4][5] The verb veil is from Old French veler, also voiller, from Latin vēlō (“to cover, veil”), from vēlum (“a cloth, covering, curtain, sail”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To free the eyes from a veil so as to see more clearly: 1599, in the play “A Warning for Faire Women”.[2] Etymonline also dates the word to the 1590s,[3] and Dictionary.com to 1590–1600,[4] but the Shorter Oxford dates it to late Middle English[6] and Merriam-Webster to the 14th century.[5]

Semantic evolution

The earliest sense concerned sight, clearing the eyes of a veil, and is now rare.[2][6][3] Already in 1609, in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida, the word was used figuratively for revealing or disclosing something.[2] From the 1650s it meant to display something by taking off its covering, and, intransitively, to take off a veil.[2][3] Johnson (1755) gave "to uncover; to divest of a veil" and "to disclose; to show", quoting Milton and Pope.[7] The ceremonial sense, removing the covering from a statue or monument to show it to the public for the first time, is recorded from 1865, in Punch.[2][8] The word belongs to a wider pattern, traced back to Old English, of describing disclosure in terms of position, as covering and uncovering.[9]

Timeline

  • 1599 – to free the eyes from a veil.[2]
  • 1609 – figuratively, to disclose, reveal.[2]
  • 1650 – intransitive, to become free of a veil or covering.[2][3]
  • 1656 – to make visible.[2]
  • 1657 – to display by removing a veil or covering.[2][3]
  • 1865 – to uncover a statue or the like in public for the first time.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To remove the covering from something, especially in a ceremony that shows a monument or statue to the public for the first time: The mayor unveiled the bronze at noon.[8][2]
  2. To remove a veil from one's own or another person's face.[8][10][5]
  3. To make known something secret or hidden; to reveal or disclose: The firm unveiled its new strategy on Monday.[8][10][5][2]
  4. (intransitive) To take off one's veil; to reveal oneself.[10][2]
  5. To free the eyes from a veil so as to see clearly (now rare).[2][6]

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk
  10. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin