Etymology Dictionary

UNCOUTH,  unfamiliar, odd, awkward, strange.  (E.)   The lit. sense is simply 'unknown;' hence strange, &c.   M.E. uncouth, strange, Chaucer, C. T. 10598.   A common word; see Stratmann.—A.S. uncúð, unknown, strange (common); Grein, ii. 616.—A.S. un-, not; and cúð, known, pp. of cunnan, to know, but used as an adj.; Grein, i. 172.   See further under Can (1); and see Un- (1).   ¶ The Lowland Sc. unco’ is the same word; and, again, the prov. E. unked or unkid (spelt unkard in Halliwell), strange, unusual, odd, also lonely, solitary, is the same word, but confused in the form with M.E. unkid, not made known, where kid (= A.S. cýðed) is the pp. of the causal verb cýðan, to make known, a derivative from cúð by vowel-change from ú to ý; Grein, i. 181.