Untimely

How to spell untimely

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce untimely

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does untimely mean?

1. adjectiveHappening before the natural or expected moment, or at an inconvenient time.

Untimely in a sentence

• The founder's untimely death left the company without a clear successor.

• The rain made for an untimely end to the garden party.

Where does untimely come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built from the native English noun 'time', which descends from the Old English 'tima', meaning a stretch or season of time, joined with the negating prefix 'un-' and the suffix '-ly'. The base form 'timely' appeared in Old English as 'timlice', meaning 'in good season' or 'opportune', so the modern sense of being well judged in its moment is very old. Adding 'un-' simply reverses that, giving 'happening at the wrong moment' or 'happening too soon', a usage recorded from the 1200s onward. Because every part of the word is plain Germanic English, the spelling is regular: it really is just 'un' plus 'timely', with no hidden letters. The slightly literary flavour of 'untimely', often paired with 'death' or 'end', comes from its long history rather than any foreign borrowing.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• time (from Old English tima: a period or season)
• -ly (adjective/adverb suffix)