unfull

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English[edit]

WOTD – 6 October 2023

Etymology[edit]

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[edit]

Adjective[edit]

unfull (comparative more unfull, superlative most unfull)

  1. Not full or complete; incomplete, imperfect.
    • 1608, [Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas], “[Du Bartas His Second VVeeke, […].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[edit]

Translations[edit]

not full or complete — see incomplete,‎ imperfect

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ “unfulle, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “un-, pref.(1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  3. ^ “ful, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  4. ^ “unfull, adj.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023.
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