different between frowsy vs unkempt

English

Alternative forms

• frowzy

Etymology

Unknown, but perhaps related to the dialectal adjective frowsty. Attested since the 1680s.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?f?a?zi/

Adjective

frowsy (comparative frowsier, superlative frowsiest)

1. Having a dingy, neglected, and scruffy appearance.
   • 1916, James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Chapter 3, [2]

     Frowsy girls sat along the curbstones before their baskets.

   • 1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part One, Chapter 1, [3]

     He had seen it lying in the window of a frowsy little junk-shop in a slummy quarter of the town (just what quarter he did not now remember) and had been stricken immediately by an overwhelming desire to possess it.

   See also citations under frowzy.

Translations

References

English

Alternative forms

• uncompt (obsolete)

Etymology

From earlier unkembed, unkemmed, from Middle English unkempt (“uncombed”), equivalent to un- +? kempt. Compare Old Norse úkembdr (uncombed; unkempt"; > Icelandic ókembdur), German ungekämmt (“unkempt”), Dutch ongekamd. More at kemb.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /??n?k?mpt/
• Rhymes: -?mpt
• Hyphenation: un?kempt

Adjective

unkempt (comparative more unkempt, superlative most unkempt)

1. (of hair) Uncombed; dishevelled.
2. (by extension) Disorderly; untidy; messy; not kept up.
3. (figuratively) Rough; unpolished

Synonyms

• dishevelled
• slovenly

Translations

References

• James A. H. Murray [et al.], editors (1884–1928) , “Uncompt”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume X, Part 1 (Ti–U), London: Clarendon Press, OCLC 15566697, page 95, column 1.