unfull
English
WOTD – 6 October 2023
Etymology
From Middle English unfulle (“incomplete”),[1] from un- (prefix meaning ‘not’)[2] + ful (“filled to capacity, full; complete, whole”)[3] (from Old English ful, full (“filled, full; complete, entire”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- (“to fill”)). The English word is analysable as un- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + full.[4]
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: ŭn-fo͝ol', IPA(key): /ʌnˈfʊl/
Audio (General American): (file)
- (Northern England, Ireland) IPA(key): /ʊnˈfʊl/
- (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA(key): /ʌnˈfʉl/
- (bowl–bull merger, California) IPA(key): /ʌnˈfoʊl/
- Rhymes: -ʊl
- Hyphenation: un‧full
Adjective
unfull (comparative more unfull, superlative most unfull)
- Not full or complete; incomplete, imperfect.
- 1608, [Guillaume de Salluste] Du Bartas, “[Du Bartas His Second Weeke, […]. Adam. […].] The Handi-crafts. The IIII. Part of the I. Day of the II. Week.”, in Josuah Sylvester, transl., Du Bartas His Deuine Weekes and Workes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Humfrey Lownes [and are to be sold by Arthur Iohnson […]], published 1611, →OCLC, page 290:
- [T]h’vn-full Harmony / Of vn-even Hammers, beating diverſly, / VVakens the tunes that his [Tubal-cain’s] ſvveet numbery ſoule / Yer birth (ſom think) learn’d of the vvarbling Pole.
Related terms
Translations
See also
References
- ^ “unfulle, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- ^ “un-, pref.(1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- ^ “ful, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- ^ “unfull, adj.”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023.