Uneasy

How to spell uneasy

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce uneasy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does uneasy mean?

1. adjectiveFeeling anxious, troubled, or lacking a sense of comfort and security.

Uneasy in a sentence

• She felt uneasy about the results of the medical tests.

• An uneasy silence settled over the room before the verdict.

Where does uneasy come from?

Language of origin: French

This word is a straightforward compound built inside English from the prefix un-, meaning 'not', and the adjective easy. Easy itself reached English in the 1100s and 1200s through Old French, where aisie meant 'comfortable' or 'at ease', a word tied to aise, the source of the modern noun 'ease', and ultimately rooted in ideas of room, opportunity and convenience. By the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries writers were combining the native negating prefix un- with this borrowed adjective to form uneasy, originally meaning 'not comfortable' in a physical sense. Over time the dominant meaning shifted from bodily discomfort toward mental discomfort, so that today it describes a state of anxiety, nervousness or vague unsettledness. The spelling is regular once you see the parts: keep the single 'n' of un-, then easy unchanged, since there is no doubling and the trap is only the unfamiliar look of un- pressed against the silent vowel pattern of easy.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• easy (comfortable, free from difficulty, from Old French aisie 'at ease')