Etymology

unbeknown

un·be·known
U1N1B3E1K5N1O1W4N1

Today it means: Not beknown. Full definition →

English beknown ← Middle English bi- ← Old English be-
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*né
  2. Proto-Indo-European*n̥-
  3. Proto-Germanic*un-
  4. Proto-West Germanic*un-
  5. Old Englishun-
  6. Middle Englishun-
  7. Englishun-
  8. Proto-Indo-European*h₁ep-
  9. Proto-Indo-European*h₁éps
  10. Proto-Indo-European*h₁épi
  11. Proto-Indo-European*h₁pi
  12. Proto-Germanic*bi
  13. Proto-Germanic*bi-
  14. Proto-West Germanic*bi-
  15. Old Englishbe-
  16. Middle Englishbi-
  17. Englishbe-
  18. Englishknown
  19. Englishbeknown
  20. English todayunbeknown

From un- + beknown.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.