uneath

English

Alternative forms

• unneth (obsolete) [14th–17th c.]
• unnethe, unnethes (obsolete)
• uneth, unethe, unneath, unnethes, unnethis, unethes, uneathes (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English unethe, uneathe (“difficult, not easy”), from Old English unēaþe (“difficult, not easy”). By surface analysis, un- +‎ eath. See eath, easy for further. First attested in the Old English period.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ʌˈniːθ/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (US):

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Adjective

uneath

1. (obsolete) Not easy; hard.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 22:

     who he was, uneath was to descry.

Antonyms

• eath
• easy

Adverb

uneath

1. (archaic) Not easily; hardly, scarcely.
   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:

     Uneath may she endure the flinty streets, / To tread them with her tender-feeling feet.

2. (obsolete) Reluctantly, unwillingly.
   • 1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book VII, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, →OCLC:

     Ryght so Sir Launcelot departed with grete hevynes, that unneth he myght susteyne hymselff for grete dole-makynge.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Anagrams

• Huante, unhate