untime

English

Alternative forms

• un-time

Etymology 1

From Middle English untime, untyme, ontyme, from Old English untīma (“an unseasonable time”), from Proto-Germanic *untīmô, equivalent to un- +‎ time. Cognate with Old Norse útími (dialectal Norwegian otime).

Noun

untime (countable and uncountable, plural untimes)

1. The absence of time; timelessness
   • 1999, Pierre François, Inlets of the Soul:

     Actually, his apocalypse is a reverse cosmogony: he features himself as a monstrous Leviathan swallowing all the faithful, and the Untime celebrated by "unceasing" clock-chiming seals the reign of death and the return to pre-cosmogonic chaos. Death, not life, is what the imam has to offer to the faithful of Desh.

   • 2000, Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses:

     The body of Al-Lat has shrivelled on the grass, leaving behind only a dark stain; and now every clock in the capital city of Desh begins to chime, and goes on unceasingly, beyond twelve, beyond twenty-four, beyond one thousand and one, announcing the end of Time, the hour that is beyond measuring, the hour of the exile's return, of the victory of water over wine, of the commencement of the Untime of the Imam.

   • 2011, Adeline Radloff, Sidekick:

     Later though, after about two weeks in untime, Finn began to get confused, and my job changed to simply keeping him straight.

   • 2014, William Gallois, Time, Religion and History:

     Nirvana, as we shall see, is a time rather than a place, but it is better still described as an un-time.

   • 2015, Judith Inggs, Transition and Transgression:

     While everyone else is frozen in untime Katie is unaffected and therefore acts as his sidekick in his efforts to avert disaster, death and devastation— […]

2. (obsolete, often used in plural) A wrong time; an unsuitable or improper time.

Synonyms

• (absence of time): atemporality, extratemporality; see also Thesaurus:timelessness
• (wrong time):

Verb

untime (third-person singular simple present untimes, present participle untiming, simple past and past participle untimed)

1. To cause to be done at the wrong time.
   • 2012 [c. 1445], William, transl. Hardy, chapter 57, in A Collection of the Chronicles and Ancient Histories of Great Britain, Now Called England, volume 1, book 2, Cambridge University Press, translation of Recueil des croniques et anchiennes istories de la Grant Bretaigne by Jean de Wavrin, →ISBN, page 258:

     […] which untimes the pleasant melodies of musical harmony, […]

Etymology 2

From Middle English untime, from Old English untīme.

Adjective

untime (comparative more untime, superlative most untime)

1. (obsolete) Untimely.

Synonyms

• ill-timed, inopportune; see also Thesaurus:untimely

Anagrams

• minuet, minute, munite, mutein, mutine

Old English

Etymology

un- +‎ tīme

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈunˌtiː.me/

Adjective

untīme

1. untimely

Declension

Descendants

• English: untime