unfounded

English

Etymology

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *né
Proto-Indo-European *n̥-
Proto-Germanic *un-
Proto-West Germanic *un-
Old English un-
Middle English un-
English un-
English founded
English unfounded

    From un- + founded.

    Pronunciation

    • Audio (Southern England):(file)

    Adjective

    unfounded (not comparable)

    1. Having no strong foundation; not based on solid reasons or facts.
      Synonyms: baseless, groundless, ungrounded; see also Thesaurus:baseless
      an unfounded report; unfounded fears
      • 1663, Gideon Harvey, “To the Reader”, in Archelogia Philosophica Nova, or, New Principles of Philosophy‎[1], London: Samuel Thomson:
        […] my chiefest design ever since the seventeenth year of my age […] consisted in elaborating such demonstrations in Natural Philosophy, as might serve to unfold the natures of Beings in relation to the Art of Physick, hitherto so uncertain, blind, and unfounded on Art […]
      • 1798, Thomas Robert Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population‎[2], London: J. Johnson, Chapter 11, p. 61, footnote:
        […] such unfounded conjectures are best answered by neglect.
      • 1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter XVIII, in Mansfield Park: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:
        The gloom of her first anticipations was proved to have been unfounded.
      • 1897, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter 4, in The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC:
        “He give a name,” said Mrs. Hall—an assertion which was quite unfounded—“but I didn’t rightly hear it.”
      • 1989, Kazuo Ishiguro, “Day Three, Morning”, in The Remains of the Day‎[3], Vintage International, published 1990, page 137:
        […] the allegation that his lordship never allowed Jewish people to enter the house or any Jewish staff to be employed is utterly unfounded […]
    2. Not having been founded or instituted.
      • 1980, Helen Louise Gardner, John Carey, English Renaissance studies, page 268:
        Even the great world as yet undiscovered, the cities as yet unfounded, and the history as yet unwritten, are lost: fallen from the beginning.
    3. (obsolete) Bottomless.
      • 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 826-829:
        […] from them I go
        This uncouth errand sole, and one for all
        My self expose, with lonely steps to tread
        Th’ unfounded deep […]
      • 1685, William Clark, The Grand Tryal, or, Poetical Exercitations upon the Book of Job‎[4], Edinburgh, Part 3, Chapter 26, p. 210:
        He makes this Glob so spacious and fair
        Unfix’d, unprop’d, unfounded any where,
        Hang, like a Water-bubble in the Air.

    Derived terms

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