Word Study
uncouth
CIDE DICTIONARY
uncouth, a. [OE. uncouth, AS. unc unknown, strange: un- (see Un- not) + c known, p. p. of cunnan to know. See Can to be able, and cf. Unco, Unked.].
- Unknown. Milton. [1913 Webster]"To leave the good that I had in hand,
In hope of better that was uncouth." [1913 Webster] - Uncommon; rare; exquisite; elegant. [1913 Webster]"Harness . . . so uncouth and so rich." [1913 Webster]
- Unfamiliar; strange; hence, mysterious; dreadful; also, odd; awkward; boorish; as, uncouth manners. I. Taylor. [1913 Webster]"I am surprised with an uncouth fear." [1913 Webster]"Thus sang the uncouth swain." [1913 Webster]
Syn. -- See Awkward.
OXFORD DICTIONARY
uncouth, adj.
1 (of a person, manners, appearance, etc.) lacking in ease and polish; uncultured, rough (uncouth voices; behaviour was uncouth).
2 archaic not known; desolate; wild; uncivilized (an uncouth place).
1 (of a person, manners, appearance, etc.) lacking in ease and polish; uncultured, rough (uncouth voices; behaviour was uncouth).
2 archaic not known; desolate; wild; uncivilized (an uncouth place).
Derivative
uncouthly adv. uncouthness n.
Etymology
OE uncuth unknown (as UN-(1) + cuth past part. of cunnan know, CAN(1))
THESAURUS
uncouth
Doric, Gothic, Neanderthal, abandoned, all thumbs, animal, awkward, barbarian, barbaric, barbarous, bestial, bizarre, blunderheaded, blundering, boorish, broad, brutal, brutish, bumbling, bungling, butterfingered, cacophonous, careless, churlish, cloddish, clodhopping, clownish, clumsy, clumsy-fisted, coarse, countrified, country-born, country-bred, crass, crude, cumbersome, curious, deserted, desolate, discourteous, disrespectful, doggerel, dysphemistic, earthy, eccentric, erratic, farmerish, fingers all thumbs, forsaken, frank, from the sticks, fumbling, gauche, gawkish, gawky, graceless, gross, gutter, ham-fisted, ham-handed, harsh, hayseed, heavy-handed, hick, hicky, hobnailed, hulking, hulky, ill-bred, ill-mannered, impermanent, impolite, improper, impure, in bad taste, inconcinnate, inconcinnous, incorrect, indecorous, inelegant, infelicitous, inurbane, left-hand, left-handed, loutish, low, lubberly, lumbering, lumpen, lumpish, maladroit, noncivilized, oafish, odd, oddball, outlandish, ponderous, primitive, quaint, queer, rank, raw, rough, rough-and-ready, rube, rude, rummy, savage, sloppy, solitary, stiff, tasteless, troglodytic, uncalled-for, uncivil, uncivilized, uncombed, uncourtly, uncultivated, uncultured, undignified, uneuphonious, unfelicitous, ungainly, ungraceful, unhandy, unkempt, unlicked, unpolished, unrefined, unseemly, untamed, unwieldy, up-country, vulgar, wild, yokel, yokelishROGET THESAURUS
uncouth
Inelegance
N inelegance, stiffness, unlettered Muse, barbarism, slang, solecism, mannerism, euphuism, fustian, cacophony, words that break the teeth, words that dislocate the jaw, marinism, inelegant, graceless, ungraceful, harsh, abrupt, dry, stiff, cramped, formal, guinde, forced, labored, artificial, mannered, ponderous, awkward, uncourtly, unpolished, turgid, affected, euphuistic, barbarous, uncouth, grotesque, rude, crude, halting, offensive to ears polite, Spoken Language.Ugliness
N ugliness, deformity, inelegance, acomia, disfigurement, want of symmetry, inconcinnity, distortion, squalor, forbidding countenance, vinegar aspect, hanging look, wry face, spretae injuria formae, eyesore, object, witch, hag, figure, sight, fright, monster, dog, woofer, pig, octopus, specter, scarecrow, harridan, satyr, toad, monkey, baboon, Caliban, Aesop, monstrum horrendum informe ingens cui lumen adempt, ugly, ugly as sin, ugly as a toad, ugly as a scarecrow, ugly as a dead monkey, plain, bald (unadorned), homely, ordinary, unornamental, inartistic, unsightly, unseemly, uncomely, unlovely, unshapely, sightless, seemless, not fit to be seen, unbeauteous, unbeautiful, beautiless, semibeautiful, shapeless, misshapen, misproportioned, monstrous, gaunt, dumpy, curtailed of its fair proportions, ill-made, ill- shaped, ill-proportioned, crooked, hard featured, hard visaged, ill-favored, hard-favored, evil-favored, ill-looking, unprepossessing, unattractive, uninviting, unpleasing, graceless, inelegant, ungraceful, ungainly, uncouth, stiff, rugged, rough, gross, rude, awkward, clumsy, slouching, rickety, gawky, lumping, lumpish, lumbering, hulky, hulking, unwieldy, squalid, haggard, grim, grim faced, grim visaged, grisly, ghastly, ghost like, death like, cadaverous, grewsome, gruesome, frightful, hideous, odious, uncanny, forbidding, repellant, repulsive, repugnant, grotesque, bizarre, grody, grody to the max, horrid, horrible, shocking, foul, dingy, gaudy, disfigured, discolored.Vulgarity
N vulgarity, vulgarism, barbarism, Vandalism, Gothicism, mauvis gout, bad taste, gaucherie, awkwardness, want of tact, ill-breeding, courseness, indecorum, misbehavior, lowness, homeliness, low life, mauvais ton, rusticity, boorishness, brutality, rowdyism, blackguardism, ribaldry, slang, bad joke, mauvais plaisanterie, gaudiness, tawdriness, false ornament, finery, frippery, trickery, tinsel, gewgaw, clinquant, baroque, rococo, rough diamond, tomboy, hoyden, cub, unlicked cub, clown, Goth, Vandal, Boeotian, snob, cad, gent, parvenu, frump, dowdy, slattern, in bad taste vulgar, unrefined, coarse, indecorous, ribald, gross, unseemly, unbeseeming, unpresentable, contra bonos mores, ungraceful, dowdy, slovenly, ungenteel, shabby genteel, low, common, hoi polloi, uncourtly, uncivil, ill bred, ill mannered, underbred, ungentlemanly, ungentlemanlike, unladylike, unfeminine, wild, wild as an unbacked colt, untutored, unschooled (ignorant), unkempt, uncombed, untamed, unlicked, unpolished, uncouth, plebeian, incondite, heavy, rude, awkward, homely, homespun, home bred, provincial, countrified, rustic, boorish, clownish, savage, brutish, blackguard, rowdy, snobbish, barbarous, barbaric, Gothic, unclassical, doggerel, heathenish, tramontane, outlandish, uncultivated, Bohemian, obsolete, unfashionable, newfangled, odd, particular, affected, meretricious, extravagant, monstrous, horrid, shocking, gaudy, tawdry, overornamented, baroque, rococo, bedizened, tricked out, gingerbread, obtrusive.For further exploring for "uncouth" in Webster Dictionary Online
