Untreated

How to spell untreated

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce untreated

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does untreated mean?

1. adjectiveNot having received medical, chemical, or other processing treatment.

Untreated in a sentence

• The untreated wound became infected within days.

• Untreated sewage was being released into the river.

Where does untreated come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word builds on the verb 'treat', which English took from Old French traitier in the 1300s, itself descended from the Latin tractare, meaning 'to handle, manage, or deal with'. That Latin verb was a frequentative of trahere, 'to drag or pull', so the underlying image is of repeatedly handling or working over something. In English 'treat' came to cover everything from how one behaves toward a person to how a doctor manages an illness or how a chemical process is applied to a material. The negative prefix 'un-', a thoroughly native Old English element meaning 'not', was added to form 'untreated', describing anything that has not received treatment, whether medical, chemical, or industrial. The spelling is straightforward once you see the join: 'un' plus 'treated', with the double 't' simply being the meeting of the prefix's final letter and the root's first letter.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• treat (from Latin tractare: to handle or deal with)
• -ed (past participle/adjective suffix)