Unnatural

Unnatural

Adjective · /ʌnˈnætʃərəl/ · contrary to nature; strained, artificial, or deeply wrong in feel

Definition

Unnatural is an adjective for something that departs from what is expected or normal in nature, or in accepted patterns of human behaviour. An unnatural silence in a busy street. An unnatural brightness in the night sky. An unnatural calm before terrible news. The word signals that something is off — not merely unusual, but wrong in a way that the senses register before the mind can explain it.

Origin

Formed from the negative prefix un- and natural, which comes from Latin naturalis — relating to birth, to nature, to the innate order of things. Both natural and unnatural were in use in English by the fourteenth century. For medieval writers, unnatural carried a strong moral charge — to act unnaturally was to act against the proper order of creation. Shakespeare deployed it powerfully: in King Lear, the treacherous daughters are called unnatural — not merely unkind but violations of the natural order itself.