nameless

English

Etymology

From Middle English nameles, equivalent to name +‎ -less. Cognate with Dutch naamloos (“nameless”), German namenlos (“nameless”), Danish navnløs (“nameless”), Swedish namnlös (“nameless”), Icelandic nafnlaus (“nameless, anonymous”).

Pronunciation

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Adjective

nameless (not comparable)

1. Not having a name.

   Synonym: unnamed

   Environmental DNA analysis suggests that the number of species of bacteria that remain nameless to date may well be on the order of many thousands.

2. Whose name is unknown; unidentified or obscured.

   Synonyms: anonymous, deidentified

   The culprits shall remain nameless here, as some names have been changed to protect the guilty; just don't let it happen again.

3. Unable to be described or expressed.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:indescribable

   a nameless unease

   a nameless fear

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “The Plain of Kôr”, in She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC, page 126:

     Minute grew into minute, and still there was no sign of life, nor did the curtain move; but I felt the gaze of the unknown being sinking through and through me, and filling me with a nameless terror, till the perspiration stood in beads upon my brow.

4. (dated, of a child) Illegitimate.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:illegitimate

   • 1953, James Baldwin, “Elizabeth’s Prayer”, in Go Tell It on the Mountain, New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Co., published October 1970, →OCLC, part 2 (The Prayers of the Saints), page 175:

     He said that he would cherish her until the grave, and that he would love her nameless son as though he were his own flesh.

Derived terms

• nameless bee disease
• nameless finger
• namelessly
• namelessness

 

Related terms

• innominate
• no-name

Translations

having no name

• Armenian: անանուն (hy) (ananun)
• Belarusian: безыме́нны (bjezymjénny)
• Bengali: নামহীন (bn) (namohin), অনামা (bn) (onama)
• Bulgarian: бези́менен (bg) (bezímenen)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 無名／无名 (zh) (wúmíng)

• Czech: nepojmenovaný, bezejmenný (cs)
• Danish: navnløs
• Dutch: naamloos (nl)
• Faroese: navnleysur
• Finnish: nimetön (fi)
• French: sans nom (fr), innomé (fr)
• Georgian: უსახელო (usaxelo)
• German: namenlos (de)
• Greek: χωρίς όνομα (chorís ónoma)

  Ancient: ἀνώνυμος (anṓnumos)

• Hebrew: לְלֹא שֵׁם (leló shem), בְּעִלּוּם שֵׁם (be-ilúm shem), אָנוֹנִימִי
• Hungarian: névtelen (hu)
• Icelandic: nafnlaus, óþekktur (is)
• Italian: innominato (it)
• Japanese: 名無し (ななし, nanashi), 無名の (ja) (むめいの, mumei no)
• Kazakh: атсыз (atsyz), атаусыз (atausyz)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: بێناو (bênaw)

  Laki: بێنام (bênam)

  Northern Kurdish: bênav (ku)

  Southern Kurdish: بێناو (bênaw)

• Macedonian: безимен (bezimen)
• Manx: neuennymagh
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: navnløs

  Nynorsk: namnlaus

• Old East Slavic: безименьнꙑи (bezimenĭnyi)
• Polish: bezimienny (pl)
• Portuguese: sem nome
• Russian: безымя́нный (ru) (bezymjánnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: неименован, бѐзимен

  Roman: neimenovan (sh), bèzimen (sh)

• Slovak: bezmenný
• Slovene: brezimen
• Spanish: innominado, sin nombre
• Swedish: namnlös (sv)
• Turkish: adsız (tr), isimsiz (tr)
• Ukrainian: безіме́нний (uk) (beziménnyj)

Noun

the nameless

1. (obsolete) Vulva.

   Synonyms: name-it-not; see also Thesaurus:vulva

   • 1896, John Stephen Farmer, “Hérison”, in Vocabula Amatoria, page 156:

     Hérison, m. The female pudendum; ‘the nameless’.

Further reading

• Jonathon Green (2024) “name-it-not n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Anagrams

• Sleemans, lameness, maleness, maneless, meanless, salesmen