undeadadj.
/(ˌ)ʌnˈdɛd/, U.S. /ˌənˈdɛd/ Not dead; alive. Also, not quite dead but not fully alive, dead-and-alive. In vampirism, clinically dead but not yet at rest. Also absol. as n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [adjective] > opposed to dead
in the land of the livingc825
livingeOE
lifeeOE
quickeOE
aliveOE
livishc1175
alivesc1300
in lifea1325
with lifea1325
of life1392
breathinga1398
undeada1400
upon lifea1413
live1531
lifesome1582
undeceased1589
vivec1590
breathful1593
vivificent1598
on the hoof1818
the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > malignant monster > [adjective] > of a vampire
vampiric1853
vampirish1891
undead1897
vampirine1914
vampirical1969
the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > malignant monster > [noun] > vampire > collectively
undead1897
the world > action or operation > inaction > disinclination to act or listlessness > [adjective] > lacking animation
deadOE
lifelessOE
unquickc1475
exanimate?c1550
flat1604
unsprighty1607
spiritless1609
dead-alive1617
fireless1647
uninformed1709
inanimate1713
unanimated1734
nerveless1735
inanimated1753
dispirited1758
dead and alive1863
unalive1905
pepless1909
zipless1922
soggy1928
undead1936
a1400–50 Alexander 158 And many was þe bald berne at banned þar quile, Þat euer he dured þat day vndede opon erthe.
1548 N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. I. John vi. f. 41v Where as all men did eat therof, they neuertheles dyed, nether did any one of so great a number remain vndead.
1572 (a1500) Taill of Rauf Coilȝear (1882) 858 Ane of vs sall neuer hine Vndeid in this place.
1592 W. Warner Albions Eng. (rev. ed.) vii. xxxiiii. 149 The same..That thought he liued not because his Neeces weare vndead.
1897 B. Stoker Dracula xxvii. 381 There remain one more victim in the Vampire fold; one more to swell the grim and grisly ranks of the Un-dead.
1897 B. Stoker Dracula xxvii. 382 This then was the Un-Dead home of the King-Vampire.
1920 H. G. Wells Outl. Hist. 286/2 Presently by some amazing miracle he would become undead again and return, and set up his throne with much splendour and graciousness in Jerusalem.
1936 D. Thomas Twenty-five Poems 4 They suffer the undead water where the turtle nibbles.
1949 D. L. Sayers tr. Dante Comedy I. viii. 118 Why walks this man, Undead, the kingdom of the dead?
1956 C. S. Lewis Till we have Faces xiv. 169 Shadow and monster in one, may be, a ghostly, un-dead thing.
1959 20th Cent. Dec. 427 The vampire or ‘undead’ can only move about freely..between sunset and sunrise.
1972 P. H. Kocher Master of Middle-Earth (1973) iv. 62 They still inhabit their original bodies, but these have faded and thinned in their component matter until they can no longer be said to exist in the dimension of the living. Their flesh is not alive, not dead, but ‘undead’.
1981 J. Sutherland Bestsellers v. 59 The good old folkloric remedies for killing the undead.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1921; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.a1400