unsweet

English

Etymology

From Middle English unswete, from Old English unswēte (“unsweet; bitter; sour”), from Proto-West Germanic *unswōtī, from Proto-Germanic *unswōtuz (“unsweet”), equivalent to un- +‎ sweet. Cognate with West Frisian ûnswiet (“unsweet”), Dutch onzoet (“unsweet”), German Low German unsööt (“unsweet”), German unsüß (“unsweet”), Swedish osöt (“unsweet”), Icelandic ósætur (“unsweet”).

Adjective

unsweet (comparative more unsweet, superlative most unsweet)

1. Not sweet.
   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XLVI, page 69:

     That each, who seems a separate whole,
     ⁠Should move his rounds, and fusing all
     ⁠The skirts of self again, should fall
     Remerging in the general Soul,
     Is faith as vague as all unsweet: […]

   • 1870–1874, James Thomson, “The City of Dreadful Night”, in The City of Dreadful Night and Other Poems, London: Reeves and Turner, […], published 1880, →OCLC, part XX:

     Again I sank in that repose unsweet,
     Again a clashing noise my slumber rent; […]

Synonyms

• unsweetened, nonsweet, unsugared

Antonyms

• sweet, sugared

Derived terms

• unsweet tea

Translations

not sweet

• German: unsüß