unacquainted

comparative more unacquainted · superlative most unacquainted

1. Not acquainted, unfamiliar (with someone or something).

   1705, William Dampier, Voyages and Descriptions, London: James Knapton, Volume 2, “Voyages to the Bay of Campeachy,” Chapter 1, p. 26, […] from our Main-top we saw the Islands to the Southward of us, and being unacquainted, knew not whether we might find among them a Channel to pass through […]

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   The Romains vnacquainted with such perills, wold not endure the hasard of the siege.

   1563, Arthur Golding, transl., The Historie of Leonard Aretine concerning the Warres betwene the Imperialles and the Gothes for the Possession of Italy, London: George Bucke, Book 1, Chapter 10, p. 38

   “[…] Were my mother to see you—to know you, I am sure she would approve; but you are unacquainted personally, and the ancient feud between the families—”

   1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC

   To commonplace actions he brought a special pedantic awkwardness. In Poland, France, England, students, young gentlemen of his time, had been unacquainted with kitchens. Now he did things that cooks and maids had once done.

   1970, Saul Bellow, chapter 1, in Mr. Sammler’s Planet, Greenwich, CT: Fawcett, published 1971, page 11

2. obsoleteNot usual; unfamiliar; strange.

   Who when she saw Duessa sunny bright, Adornd with gold and iewels shining cleare, She greatly grew amazed at the sight, And th’vnacquainted light began to feare:

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 66

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   […] [we] fill up Her enemies’ ranks,—I must withdraw and weep Upon the spot of this enforced cause,— To grace the gentry of a land remote, And follow unacquainted colours here?

   c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]