ungood
See also: ++ungood
English
Etymology 1
From Middle English ungod, from Old English ungōd, equivalent to un- (“not”) + good (adjective). Popularised by its appearance in Newspeak, a fictional language coined in Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), a dystopian novel by George Orwell.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˌʌnˈɡʊd/
Adjective
ungood (comparative more ungood, superlative most ungood)
- Not good; bad
- 1660, George Swinnock, “The Beauty of Magistracy: An Exposition of Psalm LXXXII.”, in Works, volume IV, published 1868, The Beauty of Magistracy, page 236:
- An unjust judge, as one well observes, is a cold fire, a dark sun, a dry sea, a mare mortuum, an ungood god, contradictio in adjecto, monsters, not men, much less gods.
- 1947 March 8, “Dirty Work at the X-Roads?”, in Billboard, volume 59 No. 11, number March 15, 1947, Nielsen Business Media, Inc., ISSN 0006-2510, page 50:
- Now to make a short story shorter, we all know this is very ungood for a new motor and I do not want to thank the person or persons who unwittingly left their fingerprints, of which I have photostatic copies, so that might detect the presence of graphite before staring the motor.
- 2010 June 6, Tim, “Re:McDonald's Ad Promotes Teenage Homosexuality”, in alt.socieity.liberalism, Usenet:
- And remember! Islam is ungood; atheism, file sharing, civil liberties and homosexuality are doubleplusungood.
- 2010, Timothy M. Dale, Joseph J. Foy, Kate Mulgrew, quoting Jon Stewart, “The Daily Show and the Politics of Truth”, in Homer Simpson Marches on Washington: Dissent Through American Popular Culture, →ISBN, Popular Culture as Public Space, page 48:
- This man is very, very ungood.
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- (in the plural) Those who are not good; the wicked, evil, or bad
- 2009, Andra Chambers, The Book of Wisdom, page 88:
- The authorities desire to deceive humankind, because they perceived him being in a kinship to the truly good. So they took the word 'good', they applied it to the ungood so that thru words they might deceive and bind him within the ungood.
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Usage notes
- Although the intensified word used in Orwell's Newspeak is plus-ungood, this is not used in English. The base term (positive) is significantly rarer than the most intensified term double-plus-ungood.
- The prescribed comparative and superlative forms in Newspeak are ungooder and ungoodest (George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, "Appendix: The Principles of Newspeak").
Synonyms
Antonyms
- good
- double-plus-good (Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four)
Derived terms
- double-plus-ungood (Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four)
Etymology 2
From Middle English ungod (“evil”), equivalent to un- (“lack of”) + good (noun). Cognate with German Low German Ungood (“bad, evil”), German Ungüte (“ungood”).
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈʌnˌɡʊd/
Noun
ungood (uncountable)
- (rare) Lack or absence of good; goodlessness; bad
- 1953, Tech Engineering News, volume 35, page 34:
- Here we can see that electricity is merely a manifestation of the fundamental dichotomy of the dualistic universe, the struggle between Good and Ungood, between Yin and Yang.
- ?, Parliamentary Debates Australia: Senate, page 5982:
- This government has bought the myths and is determined to foist this 'ungood' on every Australian citizen. I say 'ungood' deliberately.
- 2013, Shana Abé, The Truelove Bride:
- “ […] In some, however, the ungood has turned inside out. It tortures only the spirit within.”
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