Unseen

ppl. a. and sb. [UN-¹ 8 b, 12. Cf. OE. unʓesewen, MDu. ongesien (Du. ongezien), OHG. ungesëhan (MHG. ungesëhen, G. -geschen), NFris. unseen; ON. and Icel. úsénn, ósénn.]

  1.  Not seen; not apprehended by sight; unperceived, invisible.

  α.  a. 1225.  Leg. Kath., 1784. For he halt in his hond … alle ischepene þing, sehene & unsehene.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 312. Þet wit & wereð us euer wið þe unseiene [v.r. unsehene] gostes.

c. 1375.  Cursor M., 566 (Fairf.). Saule … has vnderstandynge clene of þinge sayde and vnseyne.

1390.  Gower, Conf., II. 247. If a man wol ben unsein, Withinne his hond hold clos the Ston, And he mai invisible gon.

c. 1440.  Jacob’s Well, 263. No counseyl may be hyd in þe vnseyn & vnknowyn.

  β.  a. 1300.  Cursor M., 566. Saul … has als vnderstanding clene O thing it seis and of vnsene.

1387–8.  T. Usk, Test Love, I. Prol. (Skeat), l. 57. Wherthrough … arn the unsene privitees of god made to us sightful and knowing.

c. 1470.  Henry, Wallace, X. 626. Off the out watch thus chapyt thai wnseyn.

1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, lxxxv. 39. Haile, schene, vnseyne with carnale eyne!

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., II. i. 1. Himselfe he frees by secret meanes vnseene.

1644.  Digby, Nat. Bodies, xix. § 8. When by meanes of an vnseene haire, they [sc. jugglers] draw light bodies to them.

1681.  Cotton, Wond. Peak, 59. When a … Ship … Suddenly strikes upon some unseen Rock.

1750.  Gray, Elegy, 55. Full many a flower is born to blush unseen.

1798.  S. & Ht. Lee, Canterb. T., II. 27. [He] saw her there, and was not himself unseen.

1855.  Tennyson, Maud, I. IV. v. Do we move ourselves, or are moved by an unseen hand…?

1867.  H. Macmillan, Bible Teach., Pref. p. xii. The work of the world is carried on by the unseen force of steam.

  absol.  1829.  Carlyle, Misc. (1840), II. 226. The veil and mysterious Garment of the Unseen.

1841.  Myers, Cath. Th., III. xxxiv. 125. Concerning the Unseen … no device … can preclude the possibility of Doubt.

  b.  Const. of (= by). Also absol.

a. 1586.  Sidney, De Mornay, Wks. 1923, III. 305. Looke up to that same only King … Who,… unseene of any mortall wight, Beholdeth all things.

1623.  Bp. Hall, Contempl., O. T., XVIII. iv. What an idleness it is for foolish hypocrites to hope they can dance in a net, unseen of heaven!

c. 1800.  R. Cumberland, John De Lancaster (1809), II. 161. Davis … had entered the room, unseen of young Owen.

1802.  J. Baillie, 1st Pt. Ethwald, IV. iii. Through the dank and through the dry, Through th’ unseen of mortal eye.

  2.  Not seen previously or hitherto; esp. † unfamiliar, strange, unknown.

c. 1200.  St. Marher., 10. Þa seh ha hwer set an unsehen unwiht,… blaccre þen euer eni blamon.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 5946. Þe frosse deid all vp be-dene, Þe hepes o þam war gret vnsene Þat men gadird on þe grund. Ibid., 9091. Þat scrift was soruful and vn-sene,… þat salamon yod vnder.

a. 1400–50.  Alexander, 2536. Be þis ser Philip son … of feȝtand folk Had semblid ane vnsene sowme.

1435.  Misyn, Fire of Love, 69. Bot in treuth in me is cunne an vnsein Ioy.

1549.  Coverdale, etc., Erasm. Par. Rom., 25. If it be an vnsene and a hiddeous presumpcion, that the clay should with the potter pratle.

1592.  R. D., Hypnerotomachia, 55. A Diamond … of a huge and unseene bignes.

1604.  E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, VII. xxiii. 565. A bird as bigge as a Crane,… but of a strange and vnseene form.

1667.  Milton, P. L., XII. 361. A Starr Unseen before in Heav’n.

1725.  Berkeley, Proposal, etc., Wks. 1871, III. 230. Unseen countries and after ages may feel the effects of his bounty.

  b.  Of passages for translation: Not previously read. Hence as sb., an unprepared passage.

1879.  C. S. Jerram, Anglice Reddenda, Pref. An exercise book in ‘unseen,’ that is, unprepared translations.

1882.  Athenæum, 30 Dec., 897/2. A proposal … to substitute ‘unseens’ for ‘set books’ in … examinations.

1892.  J. Edgar (title), Latin Unseens. Ibid., 23. A specimen unseen from Livy.

1897.  E. S. Smith (title), Greek Unseens in Prose and Verse.

  † 3.  Unskilled, inexperienced. Obs.

1606.  Holland, Sueton., 254. Neither was he unseene in Musick.

1653.  W. Ramesey, Astrol. Restored, 279. Somewhat difficult to those who are as yet altogether unseen therein.

1682.  T. Flatman, Heraclitus Ridens, No. 63 (1713), II. 142. For any Man now to wonder at it, would but shew him very much unseen in the English History.