unchristian

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English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Alternation (due to Christian) of Middle English uncristen, uncristene, from Old English uncristen (“unchristian”), equivalent to un- +‎ Christian. Compare West Frisian onkristen, Dutch onkristen (obsolete Dutch onchristen), Danish ukristen, Swedish okristen, Icelandic ókristinn.

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

unchristian (comparative more unchristian, superlative most unchristian)

  1. Not of the Christian faith.
  2. Not in accord with Christian principles; without Christian spirit; unbefitting a Christian.
    • 1859, Charles Dickens, The Haunted House:
      I hope I may never again be in a state of mind so unchristian as the mental frame in which I lived for some weeks, respecting the memory of Master B. [His bell rang] two nights out of three, until I conceived the happy idea of twisting Master B.‘s neck […]
    • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 215:
      Arius […] eventually died obscurely, reputedly as the result of an acute attack of dysentery in a latrine in Constantinople, which circumstance afforded his enemies some unchristian pleasure, and was eventually commemorated with exemplary lack of charity in the Orthodox liturgy.

Usage notes[edit]

  • unchristian is much more common than un-Christian.[1] GPO manual recommends using a hyphen when prefixing capitalized words except when usage dictates otherwise.[2]

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ unchristian, un-Christian at Google Ngram Viewer
  2. ^ 6. Compounding Rules in U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual, govinfo.gov

Further reading[edit]

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