uncouth
[uhn-kooth]
- awkward, clumsy, or unmannerly: uncouth behavior; an uncouth relative who embarrasses the family.
- strange and ungraceful in appearance or form.
- unusual or strange.
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Origin of uncouth
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comSynonym study
1. See boorish.
Antonyms
1. courteous.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
awkward, barbaric, boorish, cheap, coarse, crass, crude, discourteous, gawky, graceless, gross, heavy-handed, ill-mannered, impertinent, impolite, inelegant, loud, loutish, oafish, raunchyExamples from the Web for uncouth
Contemporary Examples
Because while calling a passerby “sexy” may be uncouth, it shouldn't be illegal.
A child who masters the classics will stand apart from the uncouth boors on the school bus.
Sarkozy is known for running—television crews often film him, sweaty and uncouth, as he jogs in an NYPD t-shirt.
Historical Examples
He was the first tragedian of the Comdie, and the most uncouth man in France or anywhere else.
My Double LifeSarah Bernhardt
Their uncouth simplicity was, as they say of wines, their race.
The Letters of Robert BurnsRobert Burns
The sight of these things filled the boy with a respect for the uncouth fellow.
The Cruise of the Dry DockT. S. Stribling
For so uncouth a person he was strangely commendable and worthy.
Ruggles of Red GapHarry Leon Wilson
My own looked so enormous and clumsy and uncouth by comparison.
Kent Knowles: QuahaugJoseph C. Lincoln
uncouth
- lacking in good manners, refinement, or grace
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Word Origin
Old English uncūth, from un- 1 + cūth familiar; related to Old High German kund known, Old Norse kunnr
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for uncouth
adj.
Old English uncuð "unknown, uncertain, unfamiliar," from un- (1) "not" + cuð "known, well-known," past participle of cunnan "to know" (see can (v.)). Meaning "strange, crude, clumsy" is first recorded 1510s. The compound (and the thing it describes) widespread in IE languages, cf. Latin ignorantem, Old Norse ukuðr, Gothic unkunþs, Sanskrit ajnatah, Armenian ancanaut', Greek agnotos, Old Irish ingnad "unknown."
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper