unwonted

English

Etymology

From un- +‎ wonted. Redundant in form, as wont is by itself historically the participle adjective. Largely displaced earlier unwont.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ʌnˈwɑntɪd/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ʌnˈwɒntɪd/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Audio (US)

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• Homophone: unwanted

Adjective

unwonted (comparative more unwonted, superlative most unwonted)

1. Not customary or habitual; unusual; infrequent; strange.
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

     Be of comfort; / My father's of a better nature, sir, / Than he appears by speech: this is unwonted, / Which now came from him.

   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Arrived at Home”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 91:

     After the first flutter of conscious delight which his entrance had caused, she was able to talk to him cheerfully, and her spirits rose with the unwonted enjoyment.

   • 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:

     And Rick with unwonted diffidence had accepted his exclusion. Now with the same diffidence he came, looking trim and loving and mysteriously humble.

   • 2003, Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything: Black Swan, page 23:

     ...And ocean salinity, of course, represented only the merest sliver of my ignorance. I didn't know what a proton was, didn't know a quark from a quasar, didn't know how geologists could look at a layer of rock on a canyon wall and tell you how old it was, didn't know anything, really. I became gripped by a quiet, unwonted but insistent urge to know a little more about these matters and to understand above all how people figured them out.

   • 2008, Edna Lyall, To Right the Wrong:

     [...] enjoying in their quiet way the unwonted atmosphere of youth and happiness.

   • 2008, Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica:

     On the other hand, it was not so well known among them that Moses was always to be their ruler, and so it behooved those who rebelled against his authority to be punished in a miraculous and unwonted manner.

2. (archaic) Unused (to); unaccustomed (to) something.

Derived terms

• unwontedly
• unwontedness

Translations

not customary

• Bulgarian: необичаен (bg) (neobičaen)
• Greek:

  Ancient: ἀήθης (aḗthēs)

• Italian: insolito (it)
• Manx: neuchadjin
• Portuguese: incomum (pt)
• Russian: непривы́чный (ru) m (neprivýčnyj), необы́чный (ru) m (neobýčnyj), ре́дкий (ru) m (rédkij)

References

• “unwonted”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• downtune