unattested

[uhn-uh-tes-tid]

adjective

1. not certified or confirmed; not attested.

   an unattested codicil to her will.

2. of or noting a word, phrase, usage, etc., that has not been proven to exist, especially in writing.

   an unattested earlier form reconstructed by linguists.

Word History and Origins

Origin of unattested¹

First recorded in 1665–70; un- ¹ ( def. ) + attest ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Example Sentences

Yet time and again Bach has restored text that was far from clearly missing, or has changed perfectly plausible sounding, but in fact unattested, wording to the standard Lutheran rendering.

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Tellingly, in something akin to what linguists call a mondegreen, Bach at several passages apparently misconstrued what the children — in this reconstruction of the scene — had said, and emended a scriptural verse’s legitimate Lutheran rendering to a similar-sounding but unattested wording.

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Unattested, un-a-test′ed, adj. not attested.

Read more on Project Gutenberg

By way of facts, we have only a large body of unattested anecdotes of supra-normal successes in crystal-gazing, in many lands and ages; and the scanty records of modern amateur investigators, like the present writer.

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The trade in antiquities is too cheap and easy a thing in Italy to allow faith in unattested relics.

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Related Words

• nameless 
• undisclosed 
• unidentified 
• unnamed 
• unsigned