unbeseem

English

WOTD – 1 August 2017

Etymology

un- +‎ beseem.

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ʌnbɪˈsiːm/
- Audio (UK) (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /ʌnbəˈsiːm/
Hyphenation: un‧be‧seem

Verb

unbeseem (third-person singular simple present unbeseems, present participle unbeseeming, simple past and past participle unbeseemed)

(obsolete, transitive) To be unseemly or unsuitable for.
- 1594, Richard Hooker, “The First Booke. Concerning Lawes, and Their Severall Kindes in Generall.”, in Of the Lavvs of Ecclesiasticall Politie. Eyght Bookes, London: Printed at London by Iohn Windet, dwelling at the signe of the Crosse Keyes neere Powles Wharffe, and are there to be soulde, →OCLC; republished as Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie: Eight Bookes, London: Printed by Will[iam] Stansby, and are to be sold by Mat[thew] Lownes, 1617 [i.e. 1622], →OCLC, page 21:
  Law Rationall therefore, which men commonly vſe to call the Law of Nature, meaning thereby the Law which humane Nature knoweth it ſelfe in reaſon vniuerſally bound vnto, which alſo for that cauſe may be termed moſt fitly the law of Reaſon: this Law, I ſay, comprehendeth al thoſe things which men by the light of their naturall vnderſtanding euidently know, or at leaſtwiſe may know, to be beſeeming or vnbeſeeming, vertuous or vicious, good or euill for them to doe.
- 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Symptomes or Signes in the Minde”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970, partition I, section 3, member 1, subsection 2, page 174:
  [I]n all other things they are wiſe, ſtaid, diſcreet, and doe nothing unbeſeeming their dignity, perſon, or place, this fooliſh, ridiculous, and childiſh feare excepted; […]
- 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, a Dramatic Poem. Of that Sort of Dramatic Poem which is Call’d Tragedy.”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: Printed by J. M[acock] for John Starkey at the Mitre in Fleetstreet, near Temple-Bar, OCLC 228732398, page 4:
  Gregory Nazianzen a Father of the Church, thought it not unbeſeeming the ſanctity of his perſson to write a Tragedy, which he entitl'd, Chriſt ſuffering.
- 1809–1818, Lord Byron; J. W. Lake, “Childe Harold's Pilgrimage: To Ianthe”, in The Complete Works of Lord Byron with a Biographical and Critical Notice by J. W. Lake, Esq., volume I, Paris: From the press of Jules Didot senior, VI. Rue du Pont-de-Lodi; published by Baudry, Rue du Coq-Saint-Honoré, and Amyot, Rue de la Pain, published 1825, OCLC 315887321, stanza 2, page 11:
  Ah! may'st thou ever be what now thou art, / Nor unbeseem the promise of thy spring, / As fair in form, as warm yet pure in heart, / Love's image upon earth without his wing, / And guileless beyond hope's imagining!
- [1841?], James Fergusson, “chapter VI”, in A Brief Exposition of the Epistles of Paul to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, London: Thomas Ward and Co., Paternoster-Row, OCLC 15601747, page 257, column 1:
  A proud heart, evidencing itself in a saucy, malapert, aweless, and careless carriage, is most unbeseeming the condition of servants, and highly displeasing to God in them, as being opposite to that property of fear and trembling which ought to accompany their obedience: "Be obedient with fear and trembling."
- 1843, Lord William [Pitt] Lennox, “Lady Atherley in London”, in Compton Audley. [...] In Three Volumes, volume II, 2nd edition, London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, OCLC 62415091, page 162:
  We have already described him as a tall handsome boy, nor had his manhood "unbeseemed the promise of his spring."
- 1875, Michel de Montaigne; W[illiam] Hazlitt, “To M. de Foix, one of the King’s Privy Council, and Ambassador from his Majesty to the Senate of Venice”, in O[rlando] W[illiams] Wight, editor, Works of Michael de Montaigne. Comprising His Essays, Journey into Italy, and Letters, with Notes from All the Commentators, Biographical and Bibliographical Notices, etc. [...] In Four Volumes, volume IV, new and carefully rev. edition, New York, N.Y.: Hurd and Houghton, OCLC 45892513, page 489:
  This pernicious license of distributing, at our fancy, praise where none is due, has formerly, in different places, been confined to particular classes; and, peradventure, it is this circumstance that erewhile brought poetry under the disfavour of the sages. But, at all events, it is not to be denied that it is a vice which greatly smacks of lying, and lying is a vice which ever unbeseems a well-descended mind, whatever pretext it assumes.

Antonyms

beseem

Derived terms

unbeseemingly