rootlessadj.

Brit.

/ˈruːtləs/, U.S.

/ˈrutləs/,

/ˈrʊtləs/

Forms: see root n.¹ and -less suffix; also late Middle English rootheles (transmission error).

Origin: Formed within English, by derivation. Etymons: root n.¹, -less suffix.

Etymology: < root n.¹ + -less suffix. Compare Old Icelandic rótlauss.

a. Esp. of a plant: having no roots; without roots.

ΘΚΠ

the world > plants > part of plant > root > plant defined by roots > [adjective] > having or not having roots

rootlessa1413

rooty?c1475

well-rooted1577

rooted1712

rooting1731

radicant1753

rhizomatous1812

own-root1881

rhizogenetic1884

rhizogenic1884

the world > life > the body > digestive or excretive organs > digestive organs > mouth > substance or parts of teeth > [adjective] > without roots

fangless1790

rootless1839

unrooted1849

a1413 (c1385) G. Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde (Pierpont Morgan) (1882) iv. l. 770 How sholde a plaunte or lyues creature Lyue with-oute his kynde noriture For which..a by-word here I seye That roteles [a1425 Corpus Cambr. rootles, c1450 Harl. 2280 rootheles, c1500 Selden rooteles; ?a1450 St. John's Cambr. ertheles] mot grene sone deye.

a1535 T. More Dialoge of Comfort (1553) iii. iii. sig. O.ii Not like a reede ready to waue with euery wynde, nor like a rootelesse tree.

1652 E. Benlowes Theophila vi. xxxi. 85 As Aarons rootless Rod, so didst Thou fructifie!

1787 R. Burns Poems (new ed.) 240 Like the rootless stubble tost, Before the sweeping blast.

1839 Penny Cycl. XV. 509/2 Grinders compound or rootless.

1882 F. W. Farrar Early Days Christianity I. 492 Like a rootless stalk on a thin soil.

a1933 J. A. Thomson Biol. for Everyman (1934) II. 1023 Others, again, float freely, like the rootless bladderwort.

1951 G. R. de Beer Vertebr. Zool. (ed. 2) xviii. 232 These teeth are described as being ‘rootless’, or possessing persistent pulps, and from the fact that they are usually long, this condition is known as hypsodont.

2001 Trop. Fish Hobbyist June 83 (caption) Ceratophyllum demersum, or hornwort, is a rootless plant that can be kept floating or planted in the substrate.

b. figurative or in figurative contexts. Without a firm basis or foundation; having no settled home or social or family ties.

ΘΚΠ

the world > time > change > changeableness > [adjective]

slidinga900

wankleeOE

windyc1000

unsteadfastc1200

fleeting?c1225

loose?c1225

brotelc1315

unstablec1340

varyingc1340

variantc1374

motleyc1380

ungroundedc1380

muablea1393

passiblea1393

remuablea1393

changeablea1398

movablea1398

variablec1397

slidderya1400

ticklec1400

variantc1412

flitting1413

mutable?a1425

movingc1425

flaskisable1430

flickering1430

transmutablec1430

vertible1447

brittlea1450

ficklea1450

permutablec1450

unfirmc1450

uncertain1477

turnable1483

unsteadfast1483

vagrantc1522

inconstant1526

alterable?1531

stirringc1540

slippery1548

various1552

slid?1553

mutala1561

rolling1561

weathery1563

unconstant1568

interchangeable1574

fluctuant1575

stayless1575

transitive1575

voluble1575

changeling1577

queasy1579

desultory1581

huff-puff1582

unstaid1586

vagrant1586

changeful1590

floating1594

Protean1594

unstayed1594

swimming1596

anchorless1597

mobilec1600

ticklish1601

catching1603

labile1603

unrooted1604

quicksilvered1605

versatile1605

insubstantial1607

uncertain1609

brandling1611

rootless1611

squeasy1611

wind-changinga1616

insolid1618

ambulatory1625

versatilous1629

plastic1633

desultorious1637

unbottomed1641

fluid1642

fluent1648

yea-and-nay1648

versipellous1650

flexile1651

uncentred1652

variating1653

chequered1656

slideable1662

transchangeative1662

weathercock-like1663

flicketing1674

fluxa1677

lapsable1678

wanton1681

veering1684

upon the weathercock1702

contingent1703

unsettled?1726

fermentable1731

afloat1757

brickle1768

wavy1795

vagarious1798

unsettled1803

fitful1810

metamorphosical1811

undulating1815

tittupya1817

titubant1817

mutative1818

papier mâché1818

teetotum1819

vacillating1822

capricious1823

sensitive1828

quicksilvery1829

unengrafted1829

fluxionala1834

proteiform1833

liquid1835

tottlish1835

kaleidoscopic1846

versative1846

kaleidoscopical1858

tottery1861

choppy1865

variative1874

variational1879

wimbly-wambly1881

fluctuable1882

shifty1882

giveable1884

shifty1884

tippy1886

mutatory1890

upsettable1890

rocky1897

undulatory1897

streaky1898

tottly1905

tipply1906

up and down1907

inertialess1927

sometimey1946

rise-and-fall1950

switchable1961

1611 R. Bolton Disc. State True Happinesse sig. *2 When their rootlesse graces shall be withered and wasted away.

1656 H. Jeanes Treat. Fulnesse of Christ 387 in Mixture Scholasticall Divinity All terrestriall treasures, and riches, are rootlesse.

1754 E. Young Centaur ii, in Wks. (1757) IV. 139 We are for rootless joys, joys beyond appetite; which is the sole root of sensual delight.

1794 H. Poole Sermon 8 Who can tell but their blood..may very speedily be shed, to fertilize the rootless plant of French Liberty?

1816 S. T. Coleridge Human Life in Poems 316 If rootless thus, thus substanceless thy state.

1867 H. Macmillan Bible Teachings (1870) xi. 218 Separated from Him, man is an incomplete creature,..rootless, hungry, dry, and withered.

1890 Spectator 28 June A rootless religion is no religion.

1934 A. Woollcott While Rome Burns 93 Those rootless widows who wear buttoned shoes.

1977 R. Barnard Blood Brotherhood viii. 79 Rootless young men, without families.

2005 Daily Tel. 18 Apr. 19/1 His milieu was the questing, rootless, twilit world of pubs, rooming-houses and hand-to-mouth living.

2. Music. Of a chord, harmony, etc.: played without the root note. Cf. root n.¹ 17.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > the arts > music > musical sound > harmony or sounds in combination > chord > [adjective] > root of chord > without

rootless1867

1867 G. A. Macfarren Six Lect. Harmony v. 164 The seemingly rootless harmony of the 3rd and 6th of the supertonic..has been satisfactorily traced to the dominant as its generator.

1875 A. J. Ellis tr. H. L. F. von Helmholtz On Sensations of Tone iii. xvii. 541 The rootless chord of the Ninth on the dominant of C major.

1945 Tempo No. 13. 4/2 He certainly learned something from Stravinsky's later style, and from Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, although he never employed the latter in the Viennese composer's ‘rootless’ manner.

2000 A. Collins Jazz Wks. v. 58 You should eventually learn to play rootless chords with either your right or your left hand.

Derivatives

ˈrootlessly adv.

ΘΚΠ

the world > existence and causation > causation > initiating or causing to begin > [adverb] > in an established manner > in an unestablished manner

rootlessly1840

1840 B. E. Hill Playing About I. x. 147 He alluded, by mistake, to those button-like Children of the Mist which spring rootlessly from the turf, under the auspices of grazing steeds.

1929 A. Huxley Do what you Will 157 Nature-worship is..so refined, so rootlessly high-class.

2000 Daily Tel. 13 Sept. 19/3 Her lips had gone blue and her eyes circled rootlessly in their sockets.

ˈrootlessness n.

ΘΚΠ

the world > time > change > changeableness > [noun]

unstablenessc1340

varyingc1380

uncertaintyc1384

brotelnessc1386

were1390

instabilityc1422

bricklenessa1425

changeability?a1425

changeableness1447

vertibility1447

mutability?a1475

variableness?a1475

inconstance1509

mutationa1542

fickleness1548

variety1548

unconstancy1563

mobility1567

unstability1572

vicissitude1576

variousness1607

inconstancy1613

slipperinessa1618

alterableness1633

versatilousness1640

bottomlessness1642

lability1651

brittlety1652

versatileness1654

fluctuancy1659

fugitivenessa1661

alterability1661

permutability1662

unfixedness1668

mutablenessa1677

flittingnessa1680

frailness1687

flittiness1692

versability1721

plasticity1727

variability1771

unestablishment1776

fluctuabilitya1786

changefulness1791

unsettledness1799

versatility1802

harlequinism1808

fluidity1824

fitfulness1825

sensitiveness1825

insubstantiality1848

contingency1858

rootlessness1859

shiftingness1866

ficklety1888

variancy1888

impredicability1906

proteanism1909

1859 J. R. Ballantyne Christianity contrasted with Hindū Philos. Appendix F. 227 Some advocate of the easily constructed and useless sham-vernacular..will probably exclaim in indignation at my uncompromising exposure of its rootlessness.

1927 E. Bowen Hotel xiv. 167 I haven't had time for a feeling of rootlessness.

2005 N. Hornby Long Way Down 232 Lizzie had just condemned me to another thirty-five years of poverty, rootlessness, despair, no health plan, cold-water motels and bad hamburgers.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

单词	rootless
释义	rootlessadj. Brit. /ˈruːtləs/, U.S. /ˈrutləs/, /ˈrʊtləs/ Forms: see root n.¹ and -less suffix; also late Middle English rootheles (transmission error). Origin: Formed within English, by derivation. Etymons: root n.¹, -less suffix. Etymology: < root n.¹ + -less suffix. Compare Old Icelandic rótlauss. 1. a. Esp. of a plant: having no roots; without roots. ΘΚΠ the world > plants > part of plant > root > plant defined by roots > [adjective] > having or not having roots rootlessa1413 rooty?c1475 well-rooted1577 rooted1712 rooting1731 radicant1753 rhizomatous1812 own-root1881 rhizogenetic1884 rhizogenic1884 the world > life > the body > digestive or excretive organs > digestive organs > mouth > substance or parts of teeth > [adjective] > without roots fangless1790 rootless1839 unrooted1849 a1413 (c1385) G. Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde (Pierpont Morgan) (1882) iv. l. 770 How sholde a plaunte or lyues creature Lyue with-oute his kynde noriture For which..a by-word here I seye That roteles [a1425 Corpus Cambr. rootles, c1450 Harl. 2280 rootheles, c1500 Selden rooteles; ?a1450 St. John's Cambr. ertheles] mot grene sone deye. a1535 T. More Dialoge of Comfort (1553) iii. iii. sig. O.ii Not like a reede ready to waue with euery wynde, nor like a rootelesse tree. 1652 E. Benlowes Theophila vi. xxxi. 85 As Aarons rootless Rod, so didst Thou fructifie! 1787 R. Burns Poems (new ed.) 240 Like the rootless stubble tost, Before the sweeping blast. 1839 Penny Cycl. XV. 509/2 Grinders compound or rootless. 1882 F. W. Farrar Early Days Christianity I. 492 Like a rootless stalk on a thin soil. a1933 J. A. Thomson Biol. for Everyman (1934) II. 1023 Others, again, float freely, like the rootless bladderwort. 1951 G. R. de Beer Vertebr. Zool. (ed. 2) xviii. 232 These teeth are described as being ‘rootless’, or possessing persistent pulps, and from the fact that they are usually long, this condition is known as hypsodont. 2001 Trop. Fish Hobbyist June 83 (caption) Ceratophyllum demersum, or hornwort, is a rootless plant that can be kept floating or planted in the substrate. b. figurative or in figurative contexts. Without a firm basis or foundation; having no settled home or social or family ties. ΘΚΠ the world > time > change > changeableness > [adjective] slidinga900 wankleeOE windyc1000 unsteadfastc1200 fleeting?c1225 loose?c1225 brotelc1315 unstablec1340 varyingc1340 variantc1374 motleyc1380 ungroundedc1380 muablea1393 passiblea1393 remuablea1393 changeablea1398 movablea1398 variablec1397 slidderya1400 ticklec1400 variantc1412 flitting1413 mutable?a1425 movingc1425 flaskisable1430 flickering1430 transmutablec1430 vertible1447 brittlea1450 ficklea1450 permutablec1450 unfirmc1450 uncertain1477 turnable1483 unsteadfast1483 vagrantc1522 inconstant1526 alterable?1531 stirringc1540 slippery1548 various1552 slid?1553 mutala1561 rolling1561 weathery1563 unconstant1568 interchangeable1574 fluctuant1575 stayless1575 transitive1575 voluble1575 changeling1577 queasy1579 desultory1581 huff-puff1582 unstaid1586 vagrant1586 changeful1590 floating1594 Protean1594 unstayed1594 swimming1596 anchorless1597 mobilec1600 ticklish1601 catching1603 labile1603 unrooted1604 quicksilvered1605 versatile1605 insubstantial1607 uncertain1609 brandling1611 rootless1611 squeasy1611 wind-changinga1616 insolid1618 ambulatory1625 versatilous1629 plastic1633 desultorious1637 unbottomed1641 fluid1642 fluent1648 yea-and-nay1648 versipellous1650 flexile1651 uncentred1652 variating1653 chequered1656 slideable1662 transchangeative1662 weathercock-like1663 flicketing1674 fluxa1677 lapsable1678 wanton1681 veering1684 upon the weathercock1702 contingent1703 unsettled?1726 fermentable1731 afloat1757 brickle1768 wavy1795 vagarious1798 unsettled1803 fitful1810 metamorphosical1811 undulating1815 tittupya1817 titubant1817 mutative1818 papier mâché1818 teetotum1819 vacillating1822 capricious1823 sensitive1828 quicksilvery1829 unengrafted1829 fluxionala1834 proteiform1833 liquid1835 tottlish1835 kaleidoscopic1846 versative1846 kaleidoscopical1858 tottery1861 choppy1865 variative1874 variational1879 wimbly-wambly1881 fluctuable1882 shifty1882 giveable1884 shifty1884 tippy1886 mutatory1890 upsettable1890 rocky1897 undulatory1897 streaky1898 tottly1905 tipply1906 up and down1907 inertialess1927 sometimey1946 rise-and-fall1950 switchable1961 1611 R. Bolton Disc. State True Happinesse sig. 2 When their rootlesse graces shall be withered and wasted away. 1656 H. Jeanes Treat. Fulnesse of Christ* 387 in Mixture Scholasticall Divinity All terrestriall treasures, and riches, are rootlesse. 1754 E. Young Centaur ii, in Wks. (1757) IV. 139 We are for rootless joys, joys beyond appetite; which is the sole root of sensual delight. 1794 H. Poole Sermon 8 Who can tell but their blood..may very speedily be shed, to fertilize the rootless plant of French Liberty? 1816 S. T. Coleridge Human Life in Poems 316 If rootless thus, thus substanceless thy state. 1867 H. Macmillan Bible Teachings (1870) xi. 218 Separated from Him, man is an incomplete creature,..rootless, hungry, dry, and withered. 1890 Spectator 28 June A rootless religion is no religion. 1934 A. Woollcott While Rome Burns 93 Those rootless widows who wear buttoned shoes. 1977 R. Barnard Blood Brotherhood viii. 79 Rootless young men, without families. 2005 Daily Tel. 18 Apr. 19/1 His milieu was the questing, rootless, twilit world of pubs, rooming-houses and hand-to-mouth living. 2. Music. Of a chord, harmony, etc.: played without the root note. Cf. root n.¹ 17. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > the arts > music > musical sound > harmony or sounds in combination > chord > [adjective] > root of chord > without rootless1867 1867 G. A. Macfarren Six Lect. Harmony v. 164 The seemingly rootless harmony of the 3rd and 6th of the supertonic..has been satisfactorily traced to the dominant as its generator. 1875 A. J. Ellis tr. H. L. F. von Helmholtz On Sensations of Tone iii. xvii. 541 The rootless chord of the Ninth on the dominant of C major. 1945 Tempo No. 13. 4/2 He certainly learned something from Stravinsky's later style, and from Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, although he never employed the latter in the Viennese composer's ‘rootless’ manner. 2000 A. Collins Jazz Wks. v. 58 You should eventually learn to play rootless chords with either your right or your left hand. Derivatives ˈrootlessly adv. ΘΚΠ the world > existence and causation > causation > initiating or causing to begin > [adverb] > in an established manner > in an unestablished manner rootlessly1840 1840 B. E. Hill Playing About I. x. 147 He alluded, by mistake, to those button-like Children of the Mist which spring rootlessly from the turf, under the auspices of grazing steeds. 1929 A. Huxley Do what you Will 157 Nature-worship is..so refined, so rootlessly high-class. 2000 Daily Tel. 13 Sept. 19/3 Her lips had gone blue and her eyes circled rootlessly in their sockets. ˈrootlessness n. ΘΚΠ the world > time > change > changeableness > [noun] unstablenessc1340 varyingc1380 uncertaintyc1384 brotelnessc1386 were1390 instabilityc1422 bricklenessa1425 changeability?a1425 changeableness1447 vertibility1447 mutability?a1475 variableness?a1475 inconstance1509 mutationa1542 fickleness1548 variety1548 unconstancy1563 mobility1567 unstability1572 vicissitude1576 variousness1607 inconstancy1613 slipperinessa1618 alterableness1633 versatilousness1640 bottomlessness1642 lability1651 brittlety1652 versatileness1654 fluctuancy1659 fugitivenessa1661 alterability1661 permutability1662 unfixedness1668 mutablenessa1677 flittingnessa1680 frailness1687 flittiness1692 versability1721 plasticity1727 variability1771 unestablishment1776 fluctuabilitya1786 changefulness1791 unsettledness1799 versatility1802 harlequinism1808 fluidity1824 fitfulness1825 sensitiveness1825 insubstantiality1848 contingency1858 rootlessness1859 shiftingness1866 ficklety1888 variancy1888 impredicability1906 proteanism1909 1859 J. R. Ballantyne Christianity contrasted with Hindū Philos. Appendix F. 227 Some advocate of the easily constructed and useless sham-vernacular..will probably exclaim in indignation at my uncompromising exposure of its rootlessness. 1927 E. Bowen Hotel xiv. 167 I haven't had time for a feeling of rootlessness. 2005 N. Hornby Long Way Down 232 Lizzie had just condemned me to another thirty-five years of poverty, rootlessness, despair, no health plan, cold-water motels and bad hamburgers. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online June 2022). < adj.a1413
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