Obs. [UN-1 10, 5 d.] Unbecoming, unseemly; UNBESEEMING a. 2.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, lxxii. 15. Lo þis misemand [v.r. vnsemand] þing folous.
1382. Wyclif, Prov. xxvi. 7. So vnsemende thing is in the mouth of foolis a parable.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot. (Rolls), III. 146. But quhois counsall nother prince nor king Ma gif consent to sic wnsemand thing.
1549. Coverdale, etc., Erasm. Par. Rom., 33. Cutte out of thy mynde superfluous and vnsemyng desyres.
1662. Baxter, Saints’ R., III. xi. 473. Unsavoury, harsh, and unseeming [ed. 1650 unseemly] language.
b. In predicative use, sometimes with dependent clause.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 3891. He spake neuer dispituosly,… Ne sagh, þat was vnsemond, slipped hym fro.
c. 1400. Laud Troy Bk., 10029. Hit is foly and vnsemyng A man to leue on fals dremyng.
c. 1460. G. Ashby, Dicta Philos., 967. On erthe ther is no thing so vnsemyng As a kynge to be in predacion.
1549. Coverdale, etc., Erasm. Par. Rom., 27. Vnseamyng is it for loue of suche a meane, to dispise the ende.
1550. Bale, Eng. Votaries, II. 29. Remembrynge … that nothynge was more vnsemynge, than an olde dottynge fole … so to rage.
c. Const. for or to.
1382. Wyclif, Prov. xxvi. 1. What maner snoȝ in somer,… so vnsemende is to the fool glorie.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 1846. Þat hynd … Þat ye kepe in your company … As subiecte vnto syn, vnsemyng for you.
1536. Bellenden, Cron. Scot. (1821), I. 64. With thir, and siclike inhumane cruelteis, unsemand to ane prince.
1592. Wyrley, Armorie, 20. As these things are vnseeming for him to weare.
d. With direct object.
1592. Golding, De Mornay (ed. 2), i. 12. He is tempted of his lustes, a thing altogether vnseeming the Godhead.
1620. Mason, Newfoundland, 5. Fishing is a beastly trade and unseeming a Gentleman.
1648. Gage, West Ind., 44. The beds only were unseeming this great state, very poor.
1701. Stanley’s Hist. Philos. (ed. 3), 100. I think it most unseeming a Philosopher to sell his advice.
Hence † Unseemingness. Obs.
1540. Wyatt in Flügel, Neuengl. Lesebuch, I. 348. Here I allegid the vnsemingnes to gyve credence to his word.
