Added 9 October 2026
uncouth
/ʌnˈkuːθ/ adjective
In Latin: horridus Wiktionary
adjective Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about uncouth at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
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Lacking refinement or cultivation or taste.
he had coarse manners but a first-rate mind
Origin
From Middle English uncouth, from Old English uncūþ (“unknown; unfamiliar; strange”), from Proto-West Germanic *unkunþ, from Proto-Germanic *unkunþaz (“unknown”), equivalent to un- + couth. The modern pronunciation does not show /aʊ/, the usual development of the Middle English vowel from the Great Vowel Shift. It is usually explained as a pronunciation taken from Northern English dialects, which did not undergo the diphthongization of the vowel.
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)