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Wednesday October 21, 2009

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uncouth [uhn-KOOTH]

adjective

1. Lacking refinement or cultivation or taste; vulgar.
2. Strange; awkward; clumsy in appearance or form.

• But that melancholia is camouflaged beneath breezy elegance. These people would never let on that they're wounded - it'd be uncouth.
  Elisabeth Vincentelli, "'Youth' Is Wasted", New York Post, Apr 30, 2009
• Sally Struthers, known to millions as Babette from "Gilmore Girls" but known to history as Archie Bunker's little girl, Gloria, opens her interviews with a hearty welcome. Gloria and her slacker, equally liberal husband, Michael (aka Meathead), often clashed with Archie's prejudiced, uncouth, hard-hat viewpoints.
  Mal Vincent," Actress Sally Struthers values 'All in the Family' experience", Virginian – Pilot, Mar 19, 2009
• One evening he asked whether he might go home with her; but his aunt was afraid that he might catch something, and his uncle said that evil communications corrupted good manners. He disliked the fisher folk, who were rough, uncouth, and went to chapel.
  Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) An English playwright, novelist and short story writer. Of Human Bondage (1915)

Origin of the Word

Uncouth, approximately 725, derives from Old English uncuth "unknown, uncertain, unfamiliar," from un- (1) "not" + cuth "known, well-known," past particple of cunnan "to know".