uncouth
kind
archaic word
modern equivalent
strange, rough
part of speech
adjective
meaning for a pupil
Unfamiliar, strange, or rough and unpolished in manner or sound. tree →
how it differs from today
Today it means rude or without good manners. The old sense is "unknown" or "strange," as in "uncouth voice," which is the only sense in the second and third sentences.
examples
- “Oh! those were uncouth birds,” answered the Parrot. “They had no education, and talked of whatever came into their head. (Andersen's Fairy Tales) tree →
- While watching these changes, the maiden was startled by the sound of an uncouth voice, which seemed to issue from below the self-bored stone, close beside her. (More English Fairy Tales) tree →
- Midas, king of Phrygia, alone demurred at this decision, having the bad taste to prefer the uncouth tones of the Pan's pipe to the refined melodies of Apollo's lyre. (Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome) tree →
primary record
uncouth
tests
rate: word (≥3 uses, never in EWT or ≥10× EWT, Wiktionary: first sense archaic); corpora 5 (Torah 0, tales 5, Sefer Yetzirah 0); EWT 0; ratio 0.6 (Torah alone 0.0); Wiktionary archaic (first sense)
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «uncouth» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.