Meaning of 'un-' (Webster Dictionary)
- An inseparable verbal prefix or particle. It is prefixed: (a) To
verbs to express the contrary, and not the simple negative, of the
action of the verb to which it is prefixed; as in uncoil, undo, unfold.
(b) To nouns to form verbs expressing privation of the thing, quality,
or state expressed by the noun, or separation from it; as in unchild,
unsex. Sometimes particles and participial adjectives formed with this
prefix coincide in form with compounds of the negative prefix un- (see
2d Un-); as in undone (from undo), meaning unfastened, ruined; and
undone (from 2d un- and done) meaning not done, not finished. Un- is
sometimes used with an intensive force merely; as in unloose.
- An inseparable prefix, or particle, signifying not; in-;
non-. In- is prefixed mostly to words of Latin origin, or else to words
formed by Latin suffixes; un- is of much wider application, and is
attached at will to almost any adjective, or participle used
adjectively, or adverb, from which it may be desired to form a
corresponding negative adjective or adverb, and is also, but less
freely, prefixed to nouns. Un- sometimes has merely an intensive force;
as in unmerciless, unremorseless.
- Un- is prefixed to adjectives, or to words used adjectively.
- To adjectives, to denote the absence of the quality
designated by the adjective
- To past particles, or to adjectives formed after the analogy
of past particles, to indicate the absence of the condition or state
expressed by them
- To present particles which come from intransitive verbs, or
are themselves employed as adjectives, to mark the absence of the
activity, disposition, or condition implied by the participle; as, -
---- and the like.
- Those which have acquired an opposed or contrary, instead of
a merely negative, meaning; as, unfriendly, ungraceful, unpalatable,
unquiet, and the like; or else an intensive sense more than a prefixed
not would express; as, unending, unparalleled, undisciplined,
undoubted, unsafe, and the like.
- Those which have the value of independent words, inasmuch as
the simple words are either not used at all, or are rarely, or at least
much less frequently, used; as, unavoidable, unconscionable,
undeniable, unspeakable, unprecedented, unruly, and the like; or
inasmuch as they are used in a different sense from the usual meaning
of the primitive, or especially in one of the significations of the
latter; as, unaccountable, unalloyed, unbelieving, unpretending,
unreserved, and the like; or inasmuch as they are so frequently and
familiarly used that they are hardly felt to be of negative origin; as,
uncertain, uneven, and the like.
- Those which are anomalous, provincial, or, for some other
reason, not desirable to be used, and are so indicated; as, unpure for
impure, unsatisfaction for dissatisfaction, unexpressible for
inexpressible, and the like.
- Un- is prefixed to nouns to express the absence of, or the
contrary of, that which the noun signifies; as, unbelief, unfaith,
unhealth, unrest, untruth, and the like.
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