unlust

From Middle English unlust, from Old English unlust (“displeasure, dislike”), from Proto-West Germanic *unlust, from Proto-Germanic *unlustuz (“listlessness”). Equivalent to un- +‎ lust.

unlust (countable and uncountable, plural unlusts)

1. (rare) Displeasure; dislike.
   • 1983, Alison Waley, A Half of Two Lives:

     Poetry for me wove its own spell to secure me against all 'unlusts' - all criticisms - even against joylessness: I was set apart; in safety; as secure - in this way - as he. Who was in that audience, I wonder now? That all was success is certain.

2. (obsolete) listlessness; disinclination.
   • 1526, William Tyndale, A compendious introduction, prologue, or preface into the epistle of Paul to the Romans:

     We fynde in oure silves vnlust and tediousnes to do good.

   • 1561, Hieronymus von Brunschwig, translated by John Hollybush, A most excellent and perfecte homish apothecarye:

     In all hys meates lette a litle saffron be put:..but it causeth vnluste in the stomacke.

   • 1582, diary of Richard Madox:

     Yf you once fawl to lasynes or unlust..than is the scarby redy to catch you by the bones.

unlust

1. listlessness; disinclination
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Parsons Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, , →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, , : [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes , 1542, →OCLC:

     He doth all thynge wyth anoye & with wrawnesse, slacknesse, and excusation: wyth ydelnesse and vnlust.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Parson’s Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, , →OCLC; Charles Cowden Clarke, editor, The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer. , 2nd edition, volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), Edinburgh: James Nichol; London: James Nisbet & Co.; Dublin: W. Robertson, 1860, →OCLC:

     He doth all thing with annoye, and with wrawnesse, slaknesse, and excusation, with idlenesse and unlust.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

From Proto-Germanic *unlustuz. Equivalent to un- +‎ lust. Cognate with Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐌻𐌿𐍃𐍄𐌿𐍃 (unlustus, “apathy, listlessness”) and German Unlust (“lack of desire, aversion”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈunˌlust/

unlust m

1. absence of desire; disgust, disinclination, listlessness
2. want of pleasure; joylessness, weariness
3. evil pleasure, lust

Strong a-stem:

• unlustian

• Middle English: unlust
  • English: unlust

• Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “unlust”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary‎, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.