unco

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• Rhymes: -ʌŋkəʊ

From Scots unco, shortening of uncouth.

unco (comparative more unco, superlative most unco)

1. (Scotland) Strange, weird.
   • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

     It was noted by them that kenned best that her cantrips were at their worst when the tides in the Sker Bay ebbed between the hours of twelve and one. At this season of the night the tides of mortality run lowest, and when the outgoing of these unco waters fell in with the setting of the current of life, then indeed was the hour for unholy revels.

   • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 18:

     And the second quean was Hope and she was near as unco as Faith, but had right bonny hair, red hair, though maybe you'd call it auburn […] .

unco (not comparable)

1. (Scotland, northern UK) Very.
   • 1920, Tod Robbins, “Who Wants a Green Bottle?”, in Freaks And Fantasies, published 2007, page 70:

     ‘Ye should tear up this carpet, Robbie,’ Uncle Peter called back over his shoulder. ‘It's most unco wearisome when a body′s leg-weary.’

   • 1996, Alasdair Gray, “The Story of a Recluse”, in Every Short Story 1951-2012, Canongate, published 2012, page 267:

     Jamie has met only two kids of women: the mainly elderly and unco good who belong to his father's congregation, and those who drink in pubs and shebeens used by nearly penniless medical students.

Sign in Gold Coast, Australia illustrating use of the word "unco"

From uncoordinated.

unco (comparative more unco, superlative most unco)

1. (slang, New Zealand, Australia) Uncoordinated.
   • 2006, Alexis Wright, Carpentaria, page 106:

     ‘Aren′t he the most unco kid you ever come across?’ Norm refused to have Kevin on his boat even if he begged to be taken because he was too clumsy.

• Ucon, coun

Borrowed from German Unze, Polish uncja and Russian у́нция (úncija).

• IPA^(key): [ˈunt͡so]
• Rhymes: -unt͡so
• Hyphenation: un‧co

unco (accusative singular uncon, plural uncoj, accusative plural uncojn)

1. ounce

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈun.koː/, [ˈʊŋkoː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈun.ko/, [ˈuŋko]

uncō (present infinitive uncāre); first conjugation, no passive, no perfect or supine stem

1. (intransitive, of bears) to growl

   Synonym: seviō

No perfect is attested.

uncō

1. dative/ablative singular of uncus

• “unco”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• unco in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• uncare in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)

Shortening of uncouth.

unco (comparative mair unco, superlative maist unco)

1. unknown, strange
2. unusual, odd
3. great

unco

1. very

unco

1. Any strange person or thing; an oddity.
2. (in the plural) News.