unfair
Formsunfairs, unfairing, unfaired
- 1Not fair; marked by injustice in how a person or situation is treated.
Workers argued that the new overtime policy was unfair to employees with young children.
Critics called the trade agreement unfair because it heavily favored the larger economy.
Similarunjust, inequitable, biased, discriminatory, unreasonable
Note
The everyday meaning, though not the oldest one. Old English unfæġer meant "ugly," and Middle English unfair still meant "unattractive, unseemly"; the sense of injustice came later. In use it takes to for the person wronged (unfair to employees) and for in the frame it is unfair for someone to act. It compares both ways, unfairer or more unfair.
- 2Not beautiful; uncomely or unattractive in appearance.
The ballad describes a knight unfair of face but noble of heart.
Though she thought herself unfair beside her radiant cousins, the painter begged her to sit for him.
Note
Here fair keeps its old meaning of "beautiful," close to the Old English "ugly" behind the everyday "unjust" sense. It is rare and archaic, at home in ballad diction and deliberate pastiche. A modern reader hears "unjust" first, so the context has to point to looks, as in unfair of face or set beside a radiant rival.
- 3Unseemly; disgraceful or improper in conduct.
His unfair conduct at the banquet, mocking his host and overturning the wine, scandalized the guests.
The preacher condemned gambling and drunkenness as unfair pastimes for any honest man.
Note
One of the word's oldest uses: Middle English unfair already meant "unseemly." The offense here is against decorum, not justice. Unfair conduct in this sense is shameful behavior, such as mocking a host or overturning the wine, rather than treating someone unequally. In modern prose the phrase would be read as the "unjust" meaning, so the archaic sense works only where the setting makes its age plain.
Less common meanings
- 4Sorrowful; marked by sadness or grief.
Note
The word turned inward, describing a mood rather than a face or a deed. It is archaic and now obsolete, and it belongs only to imitations of old romance and song. Because readers will reach for "unjust" first, a phrase like left unfair by grief needs plenty of surrounding sorrow to be understood.
- 5To make ugly; to spoil the beauty of someone or something.
The jealous sorceress vowed to unfair her rival's beauty before the wedding day.
Those hours that with gentle work did frame / The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell / Will play the tyrants to the very same / And that unfair which fairly doth excel.
1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 5”Note
Shakespeare's verb, from Sonnet 5 (1609). The hours, he warns, will "that unfair which fairly doth excel," making ugly what excels in beauty. The line sets the verb against fairly for the wordplay. The verb is transitive and needs an object, and its forms are regular: unfairs, unfairing, unfaired. Long obsolete, it now appears only as a knowing echo of the sonnet.
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Origin
From Middle English unfair ("unattractive, unseemly"), from Old English unfæġer ("ugly"), formed from un- plus fair.