Uncouth
/ʌnˈkuːθ/noun
Lacking good manners or refinement; awkward or strange.
Did you know?In Old English, uncūð wasn’t about bad manners at all — it meant “not known” or “strange,” and only later did “strange” harden into “socially awkward” and “rude.”
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*ǵneh₃-
“to know”
Old English
OE
uncūð
“unknown, unfamiliar, strange”
Middle English
ME
uncouth
“unknown, strange, awkward; later rude or unrefined”
Modern English
English
uncouth
“lacking good manners or refinement; awkward or strange”