different between foul vs unspeakable
foul
English
Pronunciation
- enPR: foul, IPA(key): /fa?l/
- Rhymes: -a?l
- Homophone: fowl
- Rhymes: -a??l
Etymology 1
From Middle English foul, from Old English f?l (“foul, unclean, impure, vile, corrupt, rotten, guilty”), from Proto-Germanic *f?laz (“foul, rotten”), from Proto-Indo-European *puH- (“to rot”). Cognate with Dutch vuil (“foul”), German faul (“rotten, putrid”), Danish and Swedish ful (“foul”), and through Indo-European, with Albanian fëlliq (“to make dirty”), Latin puter (“rotten”). More at putrid.
Ancient Greek ?????? (phaûlos, “bad”) is a false cognate inasmuch as it is not from the same etymon, instead being cognate to few.
Adjective
foul (comparative fouler, superlative foulest)
- Covered with, or containing unclean matter; dirty.
- (of words or a way of speaking) obscene, vulgar or abusive.
- Detestable, unpleasant, loathsome.
- c. 1610-11, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act II scene ii[1]:
- […] Hast thou forgot / The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy / Was grown into a hoop? Hast thou forgot her?
- c. 1610-11, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act II scene ii[1]:
- Disgusting, repulsive; causing disgust.
- (obsolete) Ugly; homely; poor.
- (of the weather) Unpleasant, stormy or rainy.
- Dishonest or not conforming to the established rules and customs of a game, conflict, test, etc.
- (nautical) Entangled and therefore restricting free movement, not clear.
- (baseball) Outside of the base lines; in foul territory.
Usage notes
- Nouns to which "foul" is often applied: play, ball, language, breath, smell, odor, water, weather, deed.
Synonyms
- (hateful, detestable): shameful; odious; wretched
Derived terms
Translations
Etymology 2
From Middle English foulen, fulen, from Old English f?lian (“to become foul; rot; decay”), from Proto-Germanic *f?l?n? (“to rot; decay”).
Verb
foul (third-person singular simple present fouls, present participle fouling, simple past and past participle fouled)
- (transitive) To make dirty.
- to foul the face or hands with mire
- She's fouled her diaper.
- (transitive) To besmirch.
- He's fouled his reputation.
- (transitive) To clog or obstruct.
- (transitive, nautical) To entangle.
- 1941, Emily Carr, Klee Wyck, Chapter 18, [2]
- The Indian's heart was sore for his boat; it looked as if nothing could save her. She was drifting more slowly now, her propeller fouled in kelp.
- The kelp has fouled the prop.
- 1941, Emily Carr, Klee Wyck, Chapter 18, [2]
- (transitive, basketball) To make contact with an opposing player in order to gain advantage.
- Smith fouled him hard.
- (transitive, baseball) To hit outside of the baselines.
- Jones fouled the ball off the facing of the upper deck.
- (intransitive) To become clogged.
- The drain fouled.
- (intransitive) To become entangled.
- The prop fouled on the kelp.
- (intransitive, basketball) To commit a foul.
- Smith fouled within the first minute of the quarter.
- (intransitive, baseball) To hit a ball outside of the baselines.
- Jones fouled for strike one.
Derived terms
- foul one's own nest
Translations
Noun
foul (plural fouls)
- (sports) A breach of the rules of a game, especially one involving inappropriate contact with an opposing player in order to gain an advantage; for example, tripping someone up in soccer, or contact of any kind in basketball.
- (bowling) A (usually accidental) contact between a bowler and the lane before the bowler has released the ball.
- (baseball) A foul ball, a ball which has been hit outside of the base lines.
- Jones hit a foul up over the screen.
Descendants
- ? Russian: ??? (fol)
Translations
See also
- foul fish
Further reading
- foul in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- foul in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
- foul at OneLook Dictionary Search
Anagrams
- fluo-
German
Verb
foul
- singular imperative of foulen
- (colloquial) first-person singular present of foulen
Middle English
Etymology 1
From Old French fol.
Noun
foul
- Alternative form of fole (“fool”)
Etymology 2
From Old English fugol.
Noun
foul
- Alternative form of fowel
foul From the web:
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unspeakable
English
Etymology
From Middle English unspekable, equivalent to un- +? speakable.
Pronunciation
Adjective
unspeakable (comparative more unspeakable, superlative most unspeakable)
- Incapable of being spoken or uttered
- Synonyms: unutterable, ineffable, inexpressible
- 1855-1882, Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, book xv,
- The endless pride and outstretching of man, unspeakable joys and sorrows.
- Unfit or not permitted to be spoken or described.
- 1916, James Joyce, A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man, ch. 3,
- The miser will remember his hoard of gold, the robber his ill-gotten wealth, the angry and revengeful and merciless murderers their deeds of blood and violence in which they revelled, the impure and adulterous the unspeakable and filthy pleasures in which they delighted.
- 1916, James Joyce, A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man, ch. 3,
- Extremely bad or objectionable.
- an unspeakable fool
- an unspeakable play
- 1926, H.P. Lovecraft, The Outsider,
- Yet to my horror I saw in its eaten-away and bone-revealing outlines a leering, abhorrent travesty on the human shape; and in its mouldy, disintegrating apparel an unspeakable quality that chilled me even more.
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:indescribable
Derived terms
- unspeakably
- unspeakableness
Translations
References
- unspeakable in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- “unspeakable” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- "unspeakable" in the Wordsmyth Dictionary-Thesaurus (Wordsmyth, 2002)
- "unspeakable" in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Cambridge University Press, 2007)
- “unspeakable”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
- "unspeakable" at Rhymezone (Datamuse, 2006).
- Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)
Scots
Etymology
un- +? speak +? -able
Adjective
unspeakable (comparative mair unspeakable, superlative maist unspeakable)
- unspeakable
unspeakable From the web:
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