The story
- German · calque ofunheimlich
- English todayuncanny
From un- + canny; thus “beyond one's ken,” or outside one's familiar knowledge or perceptions. Compare Middle English unkanne (“unknown”). In the noun sense a translation of Sigmund Freud's usage of German unheimlich (Das Unheimliche, 1919).
Words from the same roots
Germanunheimlich all →
unheimlich
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.