1. Inhuman, inhumane, unmerciful, cruel: a. Of actions, etc.
α. 1549. Compl. Scot., xiv. 119. Ther for ȝe hef committit ane onhumain act.
1605. London Prodigal, III. ii. 185. That were vnchristian, and an vnhumane part.
1622. in Foster, Eng. Factories Ind. (1908), II. 18. They … have … committed such unhumaine acts in murtheringe all they take.
a. 1660. Contemp. Hist. Irel. (Ir. Archæol. Soc.), I. 251. Unnaturall lust and unhumane crueltie.
β. 1646. Hammond, Tracts, Pref. Not only the most unchristian but unhuman practices.
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1744), XI. ii. 39. Their insatiable avarice, and their unhuman and remorseless cruelty.
1796. Mrs. M. Robinson, Angelina, III. 373. Against parental authority so unhuman, nature has some plea.
1871. Blackie, Four Phases, i. 36. A one-sided, unhuman, unworthy and altogether false assertion.
b. Of persons.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., VI. xxxv. § 5. 136. He was flaied aliue by direction of this vnhumane King.
1663. South, Serm. (1717), V. 101. Bleeding and dying at the Feet of Bloody, Unhuman Miscreants.
1700. Rycaut, Hist. Turks, 333/2. That insolent and unhumane Robber.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, VI. xi. All agreed that he was sent away pennyless … from the house of his unhuman father.
2. Not limited by human qualities or conditions; superhuman.
1782. Mme. D’Arblay, Lett., 6 April. [They] are neither plunged in the depths of misery, nor exalted to unhuman happiness.
1855. Cdl. Wiseman, Fabiola, I. ix. 49. Converted … by some means, so unhuman, so divine, as we shall never … forecast.
1856. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), I. 100. This divorce between the virtues of daily life and certain other virtues which are unhuman.
1874. H. Rogers, Orig. Bible, ii. 70. An argument for the unhuman character of the project.
3. Not pertaining to mankind.
1885. G. Allen, Darwin, vii. 120. These curious and almost unhuman-looking objects [sc. palæolithic implements].
1885. R. L. & F. Stevenson, Dynamiter, 153. ‘How is this?’ he cried, in a sharp, unhuman voice. ‘Am I blind?’
Hence Unhumanness.
1885. L. Oliphant, Sympneumata, 275. The stamp of unhumanness which clings to the acts and operations of success.
