shunless

English

WOTD – 8 July 2021

Etymology

From shun +‎ -less (suffix meaning ‘lacking, without’), probably popularized by the English playwright William Shakespeare (1564–1616) by its use in his play Coriolanus (c. 1608–1609): see the quotation.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈʃʌnləs/, /-lɪs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈʃʌnləs/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: shun‧less

Adjective

shunless (comparative more shunless, superlative most shunless)

1. (literary) That cannot be shunned; not to be avoided; inevitable, unavoidable.

   Synonyms: unignorable, unshunnable

   Antonyms: avoidable, ignorable, shunnable

   • 1597, R[obert] T[ofte], “Laura. The Toys of a Traveller: Or The Feast of Fancy. […]”, in Edward Arber, compiler, An English Garner: Ingatherings from Our History and Literature, volume VIII, London: Archibald Constable and Co., […], published 1896, →OCLC, part II, stanza XXXIX, page 316:

     Th' immortal Parcæ, fatal sisters three, / Of mortal men, do sing the shunless fate: / What once Was, what Is now, and what Shall Be, / Their life, their death, their fortune, and their state.

   • c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 11, column 2:

     [A]lone he entred / The mortall Gate of th'Citie, which he painted / With ſhunleſſe deſtinie: […]

   • 1853, J. Read, “[Appendix I.] Sketches Taken from Dover Castle during a Storm.”, in William Jerdan, The Autobiography of William Jerdan, […], volume III, London: Arthur Hall, [George] Virtue, & Co., […], →OCLC, section II (The Progress of the Storm), page 354:

     [T]he many still would cling / To toil and tears—to life and suffering; / And some, whose anguish might not brook to wait / That shunless doom, plunged headlong to their fate: […]

   • 1857, [William Hayne Simmons], Alasco, an Indian Tale: […], Philadelphia, Pa.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott & Co. […], →OCLC, canto the second, page 38:

     They oft / The sway of his red club, the shunless aim / Of his dreadful bow, and wasting tomahawk, / Had felt; […]

   • 1866, Homer, “Book XVII”, in John Stuart Blackie, transl., Homer and the Iliad, volumes III (The Iliad in English Verse, Books XIII.–XXIV.), Edinburgh: Edmondson and Douglas, →OCLC, page 176:

     As for mine own dear life, O king, and thy most kingly head, / I tremble; since this cloud of war stout Hector rolleth o'er us / Dread-darkling; and perdition yawns with shunless gape before us.

   • 1885, Richard Wagner, translated by [anonymous], Die Walküre. (The Valkyr.) First Opera of the Rhinegold Trilogy (The “Ring of the Nibelung” Cyclus), Boston, Mass.: Oliver Ditson Company, →OCLC, act II, scene i, page 20, column 2:

     O, greatest of shame! / O, shunless disgrace! / God's distress! God's distress! / Endless regret! Infinite grief! / The saddest am I among all men!

   • 1897, Francis Thompson, “[Miscellaneous Odes.] An Anthem of Earth.”, in New Poems, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable and Co., →OCLC, anthem, page 139:

     This to the shunless fardel of the world / Nerves my uncurbèd back; […]

   • a. 1908, Francis Thompson, “Moestitiae Encomium”, in A Renegade Poet and Other Essays, Boston, Mass.: The Ball Publishing Co., published 1910, →OCLC, page 301:

     Foolishly we shun this shunless Sadness; fondly we deem of her as but huntress of men, who is tender and the bringer of tenderness to those she visits with her fearful favors.

   • 1914, John Jay Chapman, “Hector’s Farewell”, in Homeric Scenes: Hector’s Farewell and The Wrath of Achilles, New York, N.Y.: Laurence J. Gomme, →OCLC, page 12:

     Hero and coward enter Hades' Gate / Through the same deathless, shunless Destiny,— / Apportioned and decreed.

   • 1919, Herbert Trench, “Battle of the Marne”, in Poems with Fables in Prose […], volume I, London: Constable and Company, stanza X, page 208:

     Harden'd are we by Life: its iron pains, / Its shunless endings, do we know; […]

   • 1920, Denton J[acques] Snider, “Renascence Evolved”, in The St. Louis Movement in Philosophy, Literature, Education, Psychology […], St. Louis, Mo.: Sigma Publishing Co. […], →OCLC, part second (Renascence), page 456:

     It seemed flung down before me by the genius presiding over my life's evolution, or if you will, by providential interposition at a turn of human destiny, with a secret but shunless behest to seize the unique opportunity.

Related terms

• shun
• shunnable
• shunner
• unshunnable

Translations

that cannot be shunned — see inevitable,‎ unavoidable

Anagrams

• lushness