different between obnoxious vs unspeakable

English

Alternative forms

• obnoctious (obsolete)

Etymology

From Latin obnoxi?sus (“hurtful, injurious, dangerous”), from obnoxius (“punishable; liable to danger”), from ob (“against; facing”) + noxia (“hurt, injury, damage”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?b?n?k??s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?b?n?k??s/

Adjective

obnoxious (comparative more obnoxious, superlative most obnoxious)

1. Extremely unpleasant or offensive; very annoying, odious or contemptible.

2. (archaic) Exposing to harm or injury.
   • 1661, Robert Boyle, The Sceptical Chymist, page 26,

     To begin then with his Experiment of the burning Wood, it seems to me to be obnoxious to not a few considerable Exceptions.

Synonyms

• annoying    [WS]
• unpleasant    [WS]

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “obnoxious”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

English

Etymology

From Middle English unspekable, equivalent to un- +? speakable.

Pronunciation

Adjective

unspeakable (comparative more unspeakable, superlative most unspeakable)

1. Incapable of being spoken or uttered

   Synonyms: unutterable, ineffable, inexpressible

   • 1855-1882, Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, book xv,

     The endless pride and outstretching of man, unspeakable joys and sorrows.

2. Unfit or not permitted to be spoken or described.
   • 1916, James Joyce, A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man, ch. 3,

     The miser will remember his hoard of gold, the robber his ill-gotten wealth, the angry and revengeful and merciless murderers their deeds of blood and violence in which they revelled, the impure and adulterous the unspeakable and filthy pleasures in which they delighted.

3. Extremely bad or objectionable.

   an unspeakable fool

   an unspeakable play

   • 1926, H.P. Lovecraft, The Outsider,

     Yet to my horror I saw in its eaten-away and bone-revealing outlines a leering, abhorrent travesty on the human shape; and in its mouldy, disintegrating apparel an unspeakable quality that chilled me even more.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:indescribable

Derived terms

• unspeakably
• unspeakableness

Translations

References

• unspeakable in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “unspeakable” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• "unspeakable" in the Wordsmyth Dictionary-Thesaurus (Wordsmyth, 2002)
• "unspeakable" in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Cambridge University Press, 2007)
• “unspeakable”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• "unspeakable" at Rhymezone (Datamuse, 2006).
• Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)

Scots

Etymology

un- +? speak +? -able

Adjective

unspeakable (comparative mair unspeakable, superlative maist unspeakable)

1. unspeakable