unpeace

English

Etymology

From un- (“absence or lack of”) +‎ peace. Compare unfrith.

Noun

unpeace (uncountable)

1. Absence of peace; peacelessness.
   • c. 1384, Thomas Usk, The Testament of Love:

     Howe shulde ever goodnesse of peace have ben knowe, but if unpeace somtyme reigne, and mokel yvel wrothe?

   • 15th c., “[The Creation]”, in Wakefield Mystery Plays; Re-edited in George England, Alfred W. Pollard, editors, The Towneley Plays (Early English Text Society Extra Series; LXXI), London: […] Oxford University Press, 1897, →OCLC, page 6, lines 158–159:

     We held with hym ther he saide leasse, / and therfor haue we all vnpeasse.

     We joined with him; there, he told lies, and therefore none of us have any peace

   • 1998, Robert E. Bjork, John D. Niles, A Beowulf Handbook:

     The name signifies 'unpeace, feud'"

   • 1978, Helen Kooiman Hosier, The other side of divorce, page 13:

     We were Christians; Christians living in a state of undivorce.yet striving to keep the marriage together while living in great unpeace and disharmony.

   • 1999, Inner land: A Guide Into the Heart of the Gospel:

     The power of love opposes the violence of unpeace.

   • 2001, Marva J. Dawn, Karen Dismer, Morning by Morning:

     Indeed, I readily see "unpeace" in myself. I violate peace not only in hasty words or angry attitudes but also in failing to be the reconciler Jesus calls his followers to be. So much of our culture's unpeace arises because of greed, our proliferating needs and wants.

References

• “unpeace”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.