a. Orig. Sc. and north. Also 6–7 uncannie, 7 unkannie, 8 unkanny. [UN-1 7.)
† 1. Mischievous, malicious. Obs.–1
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scotl., II. 58. Sum now, vncannie sawers, sew sum causes of contentioun betuene the Chanceller and the Gouernour.
2. Careless, incautious.
1638. R. Baillie, Lett. & Jrnls. (1841), I. 100. I [was] … made hopefull he would not suffer it to be spoiled by the imprudencie of mony uncannie hands which are about it.
1825. Brockett, N. C. Gloss., Uncanny, giddy, careless, imprudent.
† 3. Unreliable, not to be trusted. Obs.
1639. R. Baillie, Lett. & Jrnls. (1841), I. 211. It was thought meet … to make all, without dinn, march forward, leist his unkannie trewes-men should light on to call [= drive] them up in their rear.
17[?]. Pennecuik, Coll. (1787), 36. You’re an hawk of an unkanny nest.
4. Of persons: Not quite safe to trust to, or have dealings with, as being associated with supernatural arts or powers.
1773. R. Fergusson, Poems (1789), II. 8. For this some ca’d him an uncanny wight; The clash gaed round, ‘he had the second sight.’
1815. Scott, Guy M., liii. I wish she binna uncanny! her words dinna seem to come in God’s name, or like other folk’s.
1868. Nettleship, Ess. Browning, II. 68. These gipsies were a queer uncanny folk.
1884. J. Gilmour, Mongols, 241. The Mongols … were inclined to think him uncanny.
b. Partaking of a supernatural character; mysterious, weird, uncomfortably strange or unfamiliar. (Common from c. 1850.)
1843. Lytton, Last Bar., I. vii. If men, gentlemen born, will read uncanny books,… why they must resolve to reap what they sow.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Stonehenge. We walked in and out, and took again and again a fresh look at the uncanny stones.
1882. Miss Braddon, Mt. Royal, II. x. 229. A slate quarry under the cliff—a scene of uncanny grandeur.
c. In comb. uncanny-looking adj.
1861. Miss E. A. Beaufort, Egypt. Sepul. & Syr. Shr., II. xx. 184. Between the hill of Ophel and the strange, uncanny-looking village of Siloam.
1886. Corbett, Fall of Asgard, I. 38. Frightened at her uncanny-looking companion’s strange talk.
Hence Uncanniness.
1922. J. Strachey, trans. Freud’s Group Psych., etc., x. Let us recall that hypnosis has something positively uncanny about it; but the characteristic of uncanniness suggests something old and familiar that has undergone repression.
5. Unpleasantly severe or hard.
1773. R. Fergusson, Poems (1789), II. 69. Whinstanes … May thole the prancing feet o’ naigs, Nor ever fear uncanny hotches Frae clumsy carts or hackney-coaches.
1814. Scott, Wav., lxvi. I rode whip and spur to fetch the Chevalier…; and an uncanny coup I gat for my pains.
6. Dangerous, unsafe.
1785. Poems Buchan Dial., 7. Thus wi’ uncanny pranks he fights.
1837. Lockhart, Scott, IV. vii. 217. He said it was uncanny, and would certainly have felt it very uncomfortable, not to welcome the new year in the midst of his family and a few old friends.
a. 1882. W. Dickinson, Lit. Rem. (1888), 193 (E.D.D.). Times was raderly uncanny than, An’ laal better now.
