Etymology

unlettered

U1N1L1E1T1T1E1R1E1D2

Today it means: Not instructed in letters; not educated, not well-read; unable to read. Full definition →

English lettered ← Middle English un- ← Old English un-
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. Englishlettered
  9. English todayunlettered

From un- + lettered.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.