Unspoken

ppl. a. [UN-¹ 8 b, 8 c, 5 d. Cf. (M)Du. ongesproken, MLG. ungesproken, MHG. ungesprochen.]

  1.  Not spoken of. † Also with to.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, XV. 268. Till king Robert will we gang, That we haf left vnspokyn of lang.

c. 1530.  L. Cox, Rheth. (1899), 62. I can nat let passe his diuine wysdome vnspoken of.

1588.  Kyd, Househ. Philos., Wks. (1901), 284. Albeit somethings vnspoken of might be reuiued and produced.

1607.  S. Collins, Serm. (1608), 35. I am faine to passe by some things of moment, vnspoken-to here.

1634.  Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 147. The [Persian] women as vnseene may passe vnspoken of.

  2.  Not spoken, unsaid, unuttered; not expressed in speech.

c. 1449.  Pecock, Repr., III. xiv. 373. The oon premisse is expressid…, and the other premysse is stille vnspokun for schortnes.

1461.  Paston Lett., II. 76. Desyreng the said schref if ony thyng of the Kyngs comaunded were be hynd unspoken by hym self that [etc.].

1548.  W. Patten, Exped. Scotl., L v. Causes … that … ar better vnspoken then vttred.

1577.  Grange, Golden Aphrod., K iij. No doubte but I.I. wished his wordes vnspoken.

1611.  Shaks., Cymb., V. v. 139. Thou’lt torture me to leave vnspoken, that Which to be spoke, wou’d torture thee.

1640.  Quarles, Enchyrid., III. xxxii. A word unspoken is like the Sword in thy Scabberd, thine.

1773.  Goldsm., 1st Epil. to ‘Stoops to Conq.’ And that our friendship may remain unbroken, What if we leave the Epilogue unspoken?

1818.  Coleridge, in Encycl. Metrop., I. Introd. 13. The unspoken alphabet of nature.

1862.  Shirley (J. Skelton), Nugæ Crit., v. 210. Rigorous edicts … which punished the unspoken thought as well as the visible act.

  3.  Not spoken to; unaddressed.

1616.  Hieron, Wks., II. 23. I shall also teach that which shall be for the best behoofe of euery one in this assembly, that so none may goe away vnspoken to.

1721.  Kelly, Scot. Prov., 249. When People out of Bashfulness leave … a Person unspoken to.

1855.  Trollope, Warden, vi. She had sat the whole evening through…, not speaking, and unspoken to.

  4.  Sc. Without having spoken. rare.^–1

1597.  in Spalding Cl. Misc. (1841), I. 91. Jonet Wischert … commandit … Katherine Ewyn to ryss airlie befoir the sone, on betechit hir self to God, and on spokin.

  b.  (See quot.)

1825.  Jamieson, Unspoken water, water … brought … to the house of a sick person, without the bearer’s speaking either in going or returning.