Unwritten

ppl. a. Also 4 unwrite. [UN-¹ 8 b. Cf. OE. unwriten (unʓe-, uná-), ON. úritinn.]

  1.  Not committed to writing; left unrecorded.

1362.  Langl., P. Pl., A. XI. 255 (MS. Univ. Coll. Oxford). Myn name [was] entred In ye legende of lyf … Or elles vnwrite [B. vnwriten, C. vnwryten] for wiled.

c. 1440.  Jacob’s Well, 115. Þat none of here talys schulde be vnwretyn.

c. 1445.  Pecock, Donet, 6. Bettir it is … þan forto leve alle suche þingis vnwritun and vntauȝt.

1533.  Tindale, Supper of Lord, B v. More muste gyve vs leaue to beleue his vnwrytten vanityes (verities I shoulde saye) at leasure.

1577.  trans. Bullinger’s Decades, 774/1. An vnwritten tradition of the Apostles.

1635.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Very Old Man, C 3. They … might from Sire to Son Have been unwritten Chronicles, and by Tradition shew Times mutabillity.

1650.  Baxter, Saints’ R., II. iv. § 3. 200. It was a former Record … delivered to us, and not onely an unwritten Testimony.

1792.  S. Rogers, Pleas, Mem., II. (1801), 59. High o’er the hearth his forest-trophies hung:… Each vast antler … unwritten records bore, Of gallant feats.

1851.  Hawthorne, Snow Image, Old News (1879), 153. Diseases unwritten in medical books.

1878.  H. Sweet, in Trans. Philol. Soc., 404. The characteristic features of a hitherto unwritten dialect.

  absol.  1880.  Meredith, Tragic Com. (1881), 114. I have seen, have seen ahead, seen where all is dark, read the unwritten.

  b.  Of laws, etc.: Not formulated in written codes or documents; not reduced to writing; oral.

1456.  Sir G. Haye, Law Arms (S.T.S.), 128. Be all lawis wryttin and unwrittin.

1596.  Spenser, State Irel., ¶ 12. The Brehoone lawe … is a certayne rule of right unwritten, but delivered by tradition from one to another.

1641.  Milton, Ch. Govt., I. iii. 11. Those unwritten lawes and Ideas which nature hath ingraven in us.

c. 1670.  Hobbes, Dial. Com. Laws (1681), 3. Equity is a certain perfect Reason that interpreteth and amendeth the Law written, it self being unwritten, and consisting in nothing else but right Reason.

1765.  Blackstone, Comm., Introd. I. 63. The municipal law of England … may … be divided into two kinds:… the unwritten, or common law; and … the written, or statute law.

1856.  Emerson, Eng. Traits, Universities, Wks. (Bohn), II. 93. That an unwritten code of honour deals … an even-handed justice.

1888.  T. W. Reid, Life W. E. Forster (ed. 2), II. vii. 294. The unwritten law of the Land League.

  c.  Not written of or about.

1761.  in Hull Museum Publ. (No. 102), 13. Which, having been hitherto concealed and unwritten of, is … worthy of a general knowledge.

  2.  Not written upon. Also with on.

1542.  in T. A. Beck, Ann. Furnes (1844), App. 87. [He] sealyd therwyth vij. blanckes in perchement then beyng blanckes and unwryttene.

1555.  Eden, Decades (Arb.), 57. A white paper vnwritten, vpon the which yow may … wryte what yow lyste.

1583.  Golding, Calvin on Deut. lxix. 423. This disposednes is as a white vnwritten paper.

1664.  South, Serm. (1715), II. 46. Like unwritten paper,… it … is white … and fair for an after-Inscription.

a. 1700.  Evelyn, Diary, 27 Oct. 1664. He then … ask’d me if I had any paper about me unwritten and a crayon.

1760–2.  Goldsm., Cit. W., xlvi. When the large unwritten page presents its snowy spotless bosom to the writer’s hand.

1833.  T. Hook, Parson’s Dau., I. xi. So that no possible spot or corner of her letters should escape unwritten on.

1873.  B. Harte, Fiddletown, 26. His wash-bill made out on the unwritten side of one of these squares.