ppl. a. Chiefly Sc. and north. Now arch. or dial. [UN-1 8. Cf. NFris. ünkänd, Norw. ukjend, Da. ukendt, Sw. okänd, Du. ongekend. See also UNKENT ppl. a.]

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  1.  Unknown; strange.

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a. 1300.  Cursor M., 28474. Wit womman knaun and vnkend.

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c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, xvi. (Magdalene), 891. I ame scho … Þat here þe thretty vintir ay til al men has vnkennyt bene.

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c. 1400.  trans. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh., 84. I aiugyd þat þey [sc. secrets] sholde noght be vnkennyd to þy worthy myghtynesse.

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a. 1440.  Sir Eglam., 843. A grype … Hur yonge sone awey … bare Yn-to a cuntre unkende.

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c. 1475.  Rauf Coilȝear, 247. I am wonder wa to cum quhair I am vnkend.

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1535.  Stewart, Cron. Scot. (Rolls), II. 115. Quhat movit thame it is wnkend to me.

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1591.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. iii. 1160. Let me … among the Great un-kend, My rest of dayes in the Calm Countrey end.

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1632.  J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Eromena, 193. Both of us altogether unkend and quite forgotten.

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1721.  Ramsay, Keitha, 37. Ye unkend pow’rs wha water haunt or air.

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1785.  Burns, To W. Simpson, vii. She lay like some unkend-of isle.

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1814.  Scott, Wav., xviii. For the … trouble which he had … to an unkenn’d degree.

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  2.  Undescried, unperceived; unexplored.

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1592.  Daniel, Compl. Rosamond, 422. Witnesse the world, wherein is nothing rifer, Then miseries vnken’d before they come.

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a. 1680.  Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 417. No Ship in the Day time, can pass unken’d.

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1747.  [G. Ridley], Psyche, xxiv., in Museum, III. 88. Unkenn’d of her, he raught the embroider’d Bank.

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1890.  Æ. Prince, Palomide, 25. Deep in trackless, unkenned ways.

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  Hence Unkennedness.

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1896.  Flora A. Steel, Face of Waters, I. vi. There was a strange unkennedness about their would-be familiarity.

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