unworldly

English

Etymology

From un- +‎ worldly.

Adjective

unworldly (comparative unworldlier, superlative unworldliest)

1. Exceeding what is typically found in the world; exceptional, transcendent.
2. Characterising people who are unconcerned with worldly matters; spiritually minded.
   • 1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Book II, chapter 17:

     ‘But a good wife—a good unworldly woman—may really help a man, and keep him more independent.’

   • 1982 August 28, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 7, page 18:

     I am an aspiring theological writer-artist, Alien Christian Mystic, unworldly, contemplative.

3. Not belonging to this world; celestial.
   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 35:

     This creature from a higher world has not forgotten all that he knew before; he retains his unworldly talents and supreme intelligence.

4. Lacking sophistication.

Related terms

• otherworldly
• unworldliness
• worldly

 

Translations

Spiritually minded

• Bulgarian: духовен (bg) (duhoven)
• Manx: neuheihltagh, neughooghyssagh

lacking sophistication

• Bulgarian: наивен (bg) (naiven), неопитен (bg) (neopiten)
• Dutch: wereldvreemd (nl)
• German: weltfremd (de)