a. Now dial. Forms: α. 4–5 vnkid (4 -kidd, 5 -kidde), vnkyd (4 -kydd, 6 -kydde), vnkud, 8–9 unkid. β. 4 vnkede, 5– unked, 8–9 unket. [ME. un-kidd, f. UN-1 + pa. pple. of KITHE v. Cf. UNCO, UNCOUTH, UNKARD, UNKETH, and UNQUOD adjs.]
1. Not made known or revealed; unknown, unfamiliar, strange.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 6920. He-self has berid him and hidd In a priue sted vn-kydd.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxxi. (Eugenia), 90. Oure treutht to þaim wes vnkid.
a. 1400. R. Gloucester’s Chron. (Rolls), 7247. Þre kinges were of engelond of vnkunde [MS. C. vnkede] sede.
c. 1465. Eng. Chron. (Camden, 1856), 2. Not onli for deuocion, but also forto se the newe and unkid solennite.
1540. Hyrde, trans. Vives’ Instr. Chr. Wom. (1541), 47. The women were taken with an unked kynd of franzy.
1583. Abstract of Acts, Canons, etc. temp. Q. Eliz., 70. A phisition … must not minister after any vnked maner, but [etc.].
1825. Brockett, N. C. Words, Unket, Unkid, strange, unusual.
1894–6. in Northumb. and Warw. glossaries.
2. Awkward or troublesome through being unfamiliar or unknown.
1634. C. Butler, Eng. Gram., Pref. So powerful is the tyrant custom … that … this little change … will seem to some harsh and unked at the first.
1810. S. Green, Reformist, I. 89. I, who never has handled a needle, will make but an unked kind of business of it.
1815. Mrs. Pilkington, Celebrity, I. 131. It is but an unked kind of way for a stranger to find.
b. Causing awkwardness or unpleasantness.
1860. Hughes, T. Brown at Oxf., xviii. I hopes as you don’t think I be any ways unked ’bout this here quire-singin’.
3. Unfamiliarly lone or dreary; lonely, dismal, forbiddingly dull.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Unked,… Solitary, Lonely.
1727. Hearne, Diary, 11 Nov. W[hi]ch way (a strangely unked, solitary walk) I had never went … before.
1790. Cowper, Lett. to Mrs. Throckmorton, 21 March. Weston is sadly unked without you.
1825. Jennings, Observ. Dial. W. Eng., 148. Late at night a rawd along All droo a unket ood.
1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., xii. The place was unkid and lonesome, and the rolling clouds very desolate.
b. Of persons: Feeling lonely, dull, or depressed.
1760. Miss Talbot, Lett. to Mrs. E. Carter, 8 May. Mr. Okey gone to his apprenticeship, and I a little unkit for want of my scholar.
1795. H. Walpole, Lett. to Miss Berry, 2 Sept. I am very unked without you.
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., s.v., Old people suffering from the loss of friends will frequently say they feel very unkid.
4. Disagreeable, unpleasant, unnatural, eerie.
1800. Gentl. Mag., Feb., 107. [In Oxon.] every thing that is unfortunate, or unlucky, or not as it could be wished, is unked.
1864. Chr. G. Rossetti, Jessie Cameron, v. By her hut … they would not pass at night, Lest they should hear an unked strain Or see an unked sight.
1884. Standard, 6 Sept., 2/1. The … lapping of the waters evoke[s] a weird feeling that is somewhat, as the West Country people called it, unked.
Hence Unkedness. rare.
1796. Charlotte Smith, Marchmont, I. 232. The unketness of the place.
1838. Lady Lyttelton, Lett. (1873), 235. I … had a wretched unkedness of a morning at the Inn.
1905. Eng. Dial. Dict., s.v.
