Where does “unlovely” come from?
Unlovely is a Middle English formation from un- plus lovely, meaning not beautiful or attractive in appearance.
unlovely (English): unattractive, ugly
Ancestry of “unlovely”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Middle English | unlovely | — |
| 2 | Middle English | un- | — |
| 3 | Old English | un- | negation or absence of: un-, non-; bad; forms... |
| 4 | Proto-West Germanic | un- | not, un- |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | un- | not, un- |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | n̥- | not, un- |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | ne | not |
Words derived from “unlovely”