different between unseen vs elusive

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?si?n/
• Rhymes: -i?n

Etymology 1

From Middle English unsen, unseyn, unseien, from Old English un?esewen, from Proto-Germanic *unsewanaz, equivalent to un- +? seen. Cognate with Dutch ongezien (“unseen”), German Low German unsehn (“unseen”), German ungesehen (“unseen”).

Adjective

unseen (not comparable)

1. Not seen or discovered; invisible.
   • 1890, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 9:

     You became to me the visible incarnation of that unseen ideal whose memory haunts us artists like an exquisite dream.

   • 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lecture 3:

     Were one asked to characterize the life of religion in the broadest and most general terms possible, one might say that it consists of the belief that there is an unseen order, and that our supreme good lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves thereto.
2. Unskilled; inexperienced.
3. Not hitherto noticed; unobserved.
   • ca. 1594', William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, Act I, sc. 2:

     I to the world am like a drop of water

     That in the ocean seeks another drop,

     Who, falling there to find his fellow forth,

     Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself.

Derived terms

• sight unseen

Translations

Etymology 2

un- +? seen

Verb

unseen

1. past participle of unsee

   What has been seen cannot be unseen.

Noun

unseen (plural unseens)

1. An examination involving material not previously seen or studied.

   I have French and Latin unseens this summer.

English

Etymology

From Latin elusus past participle of eludo (“to parry a blow, to deceive”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??lu?s?v/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /i?lu?s?v/
• Homophone: illusive

Adjective

elusive (comparative more elusive, superlative most elusive)

1. Evading capture, comprehension or remembrance.

   The elusive criminal was arrested

2. Difficult to make precise.

   A precise definition of diarrhea is elusive (Robbin's pathology, 8th ed)
3. Rarely seen.

Related terms

• elude

Derived terms

• elusively
• elusiveness

Translations

Italian

Adjective

elusive

1. feminine plural of elusivo