unwonted

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word unwonted. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word unwonted, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say unwonted in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word unwonted you have here. The definition of the word unwonted will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofunwonted, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Etymology

From un- +‎ wonted. Redundant in form, as wont is by itself historically the participle adjective. Largely displaced earlier unwont.

Pronunciation

Adjective

unwonted (comparative more unwonted, superlative most unwonted)

  1. Not customary or habitual; unusual; infrequent; strange.
    • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
      Be of comfort; / My father's of a better nature, sir, / Than he appears by speech: this is unwonted, / Which now came from him.
    • 1837, L E L, “Arrived at Home”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. , volume I, London: Henry Colburn, , →OCLC, page 91:
      After the first flutter of conscious delight which his entrance had caused, she was able to talk to him cheerfully, and her spirits rose with the unwonted enjoyment.
    • 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:
      And Rick with unwonted diffidence had accepted his exclusion. Now with the same diffidence he came, looking trim and loving and mysteriously humble.
    • 2003, Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything: Black Swan, page 23:
      ...And ocean salinity, of course, represented only the merest sliver of my ignorance. I didn't know what a proton was, didn't know a quark from a quasar, didn't know how geologists could look at a layer of rock on a canyon wall and tell you how old it was, didn't know anything, really. I became gripped by a quiet, unwonted but insistent urge to know a little more about these matters and to understand above all how people figured them out.
    • 2008, Edna Lyall, To Right the Wrong:
      [...] enjoying in their quiet way the unwonted atmosphere of youth and happiness.
    • 2008, Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica:
      On the other hand, it was not so well known among them that Moses was always to be their ruler, and so it behooved those who rebelled against his authority to be punished in a miraculous and unwonted manner.
  2. (archaic) Unused (to); unaccustomed (to) something.

Derived terms

Translations

References

Anagrams