unheimlich

Borrowed from German unheimlich.

• IPA^(key): /ʊnˈhaɪmlɪx/ (or as German, below)

unheimlich (comparative more unheimlich, superlative most unheimlich)

1. Weird, uncanny. [from 19th c.]
   • 1936, Isiah Berlin, letter, 3 Jun 1936:

     My point is that there is no grand single line, everything is in bits, & often absolutely dead, & always very unheimlich, almost macabre.

   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 272:

     Werfner, damn him, keen-witted but unheimlich, is obsessed with railway lines

   • 2009, Søren Kirkegaard, translated by MG Piety, Repetition, Oxford, page 33:

     The music rings throughout the hall, somewhat unheimlich, given that the place is so empty.

From Middle High German unheimlich, from Old High German *unheimlīh, equivalent to un- +‎ heimlich (“familiar”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈʊnˌhaɪ̯m.lɪç/, /ˌʊnˈhaɪ̯m.lɪç/

• Audio

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• Hyphenation: un‧heim‧lich

unheimlich (strong nominative masculine singular unheimlicher, comparative unheimlicher, superlative am unheimlichsten)

1. uncanny
2. creepy, eerie
3. incredible
4. (colloquial) large; (intensifier) very in an overbearing way
   • 1995, Christian Kracht, “Fünf”, in Faserland, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, published 2020, →ISBN:

     Die Leute sind alle unheimlich freundlich zu mir, obwohl ich, wie gesagt, absolut niemand kenne.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• heimlich

• “unheimlich” in Duden online
• “unheimlich” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache