Dictionary

untime en · NOUN · etymology 1

Etymology

From Middle English untime, untyme, ontyme, from Old English untīma (“an unseasonable time”), from Proto-Germanic *untīmô, equivalent to un- + time. Cognate with Old Norse útími (dialectal Norwegian otime).

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The absence of time; timelessness.
   • While everyone else is frozen in untime Katie is unaffected and therefore acts as his sidekick in his efforts to avert disaster, death and devastation—[…] 2015, Judith Inggs, Transition and Transgression:
   • Nirvana, as we shall see, is a time rather than a place, but it is better still described as an un-time. 2014, William Gallois, Time, Religion and History:
   • The body of Al-Lat has shrivelled on the grass, leaving behind only a dark stain; and now every clock in the capital city of Desh begins to chime, and goes on unceasingly, beyond twelve, beyond twenty-four, beyond one thousand and one, announcing the end of Time, the hour that is beyond measuring, the hour of the exile's return, of the victory of water over wine, of the commencement of the Untime of the Imam. 2000, Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses:
   • Later though, after about two weeks in untime, Finn began to get confused, and my job changed to simply keeping him straight. 2011, Adeline Radloff, Sidekick:
   • Actually, his apocalypse is a reverse cosmogony: he features himself as a monstrous Leviathan swallowing all the faithful, and the Untime celebrated by "unceasing" clock-chiming seals the reign of death and the return to pre-cosmogonic chaos. Death, not life, is what the imam has to offer to the faithful of Desh. 1999, Pierre François, Inlets of the Soul:
2. (India, South, countable, often, qualifier:obsolete elsewhere, uncountable, used in plural) A wrong time; an unsuitable or improper time.

Forms

Synonyms

extratemporality · atemporality (absence of time)

untime en · VERB · etymology 1

Etymology

From Middle English untime, untyme, ontyme, from Old English untīma (“an unseasonable time”), from Proto-Germanic *untīmô, equivalent to un- + time. Cognate with Old Norse útími (dialectal Norwegian otime).

Meanings

1. (transitive) To cause to be done at the wrong time.
   • […] which untimes the pleasant melodies of musical harmony, […] 2012 [c. 1445], William, transl. Hardy, chapter 57, in A Collection of the Chronicles and Ancient Histories of Great Britain, Now Called England, volume 1, book 2, Cambridge University Press, translation of Recueil des croniques et anchiennes istories de la Grant Bretaigne by Jean de Wavrin, →ISBN, page 258:

Forms

untime en · ADJ · etymology 2

Etymology

From Middle English untime, from Old English untīme.

Meanings

1. (India, South, qualifier:obsolete elsewhere) Untimely.
   • Untime cravings

Forms

Synonyms

ill-timed · inopportune