unwashed

English

Etymology

From Middle English unwasched, unwasschyd, unwessched, a weak verb conjugation of earlier Middle English unwaschen (“unwashen”), equivalent to un- +‎ washed.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ɒʃt

Adjective

unwashed (not comparable)

1. Not having been washed.

   Synonym: (obsolete) unwashen

   • 1820, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in The Abbot. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, page 85:

     I say that the eyass should have her meat unwashed, until she becomes a brancher—’twere the ready way to give her the frounce, to wash her meat sooner, and so knows every one who knows a gled from a falcon.

2. Vulgar, plebeian, lowbrow.
   • 1958, Oakley Hall, Warlock:

     Gannon is looked upon with distrust by a good many members of the Citizens’ Committee—or perhaps it is with jealousy. He remains, however, a hero to the unwashed elements.

   • 2024 November 25, Max Brockman, “P.I. Undercover: New York” (1:41 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows‎^[1], season 6, episode 8, spoken by Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch):

     “Yeah, wading down into the comments. "Winsomely compelling cop-aganda," says C-Rob-69. Oh, wait, that was me.” “Drivel for the unwashed. The Bard, how he weeps.”

Derived terms

• great unwashed
• unwashed masses
• unwashedness

Translations

not washed

• Danish: uvasket
• Dutch: ongewassen (nl)
• German: ungewaschen
• Gothic: 𐌿𐌽𐌸𐍅𐌰𐌷𐌰𐌽𐍃 (unþwahans)
• Greek: άνιφτος (el) (ániftos)

  Ancient: ἄνιπτος (ániptos), ἄπλυτος (áplutos)

• Ingrian: pesemätöin
• Manx: neuoonlit (person), neunieet (thing), neughlen (thing)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: uvasket

  Nynorsk: uvaska