unworship

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English unworship, unworschip, unworschipe, unworschippe, from Old English unworþsċyp, unworþsċype, unweorþsċipe, equivalent to un- +‎ worship.

Noun

unworship (uncountable)

1. Lack of worship or respect; dishonour; failure or refusal to worship; irreverence.
   • 1946, E.Underhill, The Cloud of Unknowing, page 137:

     Some might think that I do little worship to Martha, that special saint, for I liken her words of complaining of her sister unto these worldly men's words, or theirs unto hers : and truly I mean no unworship to her nor to them.

   • 2011, J. Arnold, S. Brady, What is Masculinity?:

     But whatever the world might think about such men, they are judged 'right shameful before God and all the company of heaven', for before them all sin is shame and 'unworship'.

   • 2017, Madison Cawein, Accolon of Gaul, with Other Poems:

     Whoe'er he be, who on my Queen hath laid
     Stress of unworship: […]

   • 1340, Dan Michel, Ayenbite of Inwyt (overall work in Middle English); quoted in Ashley Montagu, “The History of Swearing”, in The Anatomy of Swearing (paperback), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, published 2001, 1967, page 123:

     They hold God in great unworship [contempt] when all day and for nought him call to witness of all that is said, for swearing is no other thing but calling God to witness, and his mother and his holy ones [halzen].

Etymology 2

From un- +‎ worship.

Verb

unworship (third-person singular simple present unworships, present participle unworshipping or (US) unworshiping, simple past and past participle unworshipped or (US) unworshiped)

1. (transitive) To deprive of worship or due honour; to dishonour.
   • c. 1382–1395, John Wycliffe [et al.], edited by Josiah Forshall and Frederic Madden, The Holy Bible, […], volume IV, Oxford: At the University Press, published 1850, →OCLC, Romans II:23, column 2:

     Thou that hast glorie in the lawe, vnworschipist God bi brekyng of the lawe?

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “unworship”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Middle English

Noun

unworship

1. unworship: lack of worship or respect; dishonour; failure or refusal to worship; irreverence
   • c. 1386–1390, John Gower, edited by Reinhold Pauli, Confessio Amantis of John Gower: Edited and Collated with the Best Manuscripts, volumes (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Bell and Daldy […], published 1857, →OCLC:

     To yive a man ſo litel thinge,
     It were unworſhip in a kinge

     To give a man so little a thing,
     Would be unworship in a king