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unheimlich - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Borrowed from German unheimlich.

  • IPA(key): /ʊnˈhaɪmlɪx/, /ʊnˈhaɪmlɪk/ (or as German, below)

unheimlich (comparative more unheimlich, superlative most unheimlich)

  1. Weird, uncanny. [from 19th c.]
    • 1936, Isiah Berlin, letter, 3 Jun 1936:
      My point is that there is no grand single line, everything is in bits, & often absolutely dead, & always very unheimlich, almost macabre.

    • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 272:

      Werfner, damn him, keen-witted but unheimlich, is obsessed with railway lines

    • 2009, Søren Kirkegaard, translated by MG Piety, Repetition, Oxford, page 33:

      The music rings throughout the hall, somewhat unheimlich, given that the place is so empty.

From Middle High German unheimlich, from Old High German *unheimlīh, equivalent to un- +‎ heimlich (“familiar”).

  • IPA(key): /ˈʊnˌhaɪ̯m.lɪç/, /ˌʊnˈhaɪ̯m.lɪç/
  • Hyphenation: un‧heim‧lich

unheimlich (strong nominative masculine singular unheimlicher, comparative unheimlicher, superlative am unheimlichsten)

  1. uncanny
  2. creepy, eerie
  3. incredible
  4. (colloquial) large; (intensifier) very in an overbearing way

    • 1995, Christian Kracht, “Fünf”, in Faserland, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, published 2020, →ISBN:

      Die Leute sind alle unheimlich freundlich zu mir, obwohl ich, wie gesagt, absolut niemand kenne.

      (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Positive forms of unheimlich

Comparative forms of unheimlich

Superlative forms of unheimlich