I am going to venture another guess here. That’s a darn good question. "a canny horse; be canny with this letter". Canny also means ‘pleasant, nice’, by which definition uncanny is closer to being an antonym—although that is fairly coincidental, given that the original meaning of uncanny was an antonym to the meaning of canny that you quote here. It may describe incidents where a familiar thing or event is encountered in an unsettling, eerie, or taboo context.The concept of the uncanny was perhaps first fixed by Sigmund Freud in his 1919 essay Das Unheimliche, which explores the eeriness of dolls and waxworks. “Uncanny,” in other words, means a bit more than simply “not canny.” “Canny” is a very cool word.

Incidentally, as a crossword puzzle addict, you’re made of sterner stuff than I am.

Makes perfect sense, too. This is the easiest way to find a column on a particular word or phrase. Not canny; unsafe; strange; weird; ghostly. One of the other meanings of “canny” back in Scotland in the 16th century, however, was “trustworthy,” and when “uncanny” first appeared it was in the sense of “malicious or incautious” (i.e., not trustworthy). The uncanny is the psychological experience of something as strangely familiar, rather than simply mysterious. Log in, are two or more words that have opposing meanings. “Canny” is a very cool word. The explanation then as now is that it’s the same as “priceless”: you cannot put a price on it, & thus you cannot set a “flame” to it. ; Careless.

Dear Word Detective: I am a confessed crossword puzzle addict. By the 18th century, “uncanny” had come to mean specifically “not safe to trust because of connections to the supernatural,” and eventually the word took on its modern meaning of “supernatural,” “weird” and “strange.” So “uncanny” came to mean something quite different than simply “not smart.”. My grandmother was Scottish, and grew up in Blackburn, Lancashire, so more than one dialect was in her speech. The funny thing is that if someone sits across the room and asks me the clues, I can often answer with no problem. “(as in “inflammable,” meaning essentially the same thing as “flammable”).” canny, uncanny (Freud) Canny/Uncanny uncanny uncanny uncanny / strange ? Something weird means we don’t known how it originates or how it works, or uncanny – as in How did you do that? Recently, I noticed both “canny” and “uncanny” as clues in the same puzzle. John Canny, American computer scientist, namesake of the Canny edge detector, Nicholas Canny (born 1944), Irish historian, Steven Canny (born 1969), English playwright and BBC executive producer.

It first appeared in Scots and Northern English dialects as an adjective meaning “knowing, judicious, prudent, cautious,” and is simply based on the verb “can” in the sense of “to be able” (as in “I can fly”). To search for a specific phrase, put it between quotation marks. "He bore an uncanny resemblance to the dead sailor.".

Spooky.

An obsolete meaning of the word canny was knowledge.

Uncanny is indeed derived directly from canny and carries down the same root sense. Canny is a related term of uncanny. We don't have any banner, Flash, animation, obnoxious sound, or popup ad. The question then arises, were the words originally related? Bottomline: the correct word is still “inflammable” but correcting others on this would become an unpaid part-time job. The concept has since been taken up by a variety of subsequent thinkers and theorists such as Roboticist Masahiro Mori's "uncanny valley" hypothesis and Julia Kristeva's concept of abjection. We deeply appreciate the erudition and energy of our commenters. Go figure.

If “canny” is knowing, and I think it is taken from “ken”, as in it’s beyond my ken, then to me “uncanny” is unknown or beyond knowing.

showing self-interest and shrewdness in dealing with others; suggesting the operation of supernatural influences; "stumps...had uncanny shapes as of monstrous creatures", "he could hear the unearthly scream of some curlew piercing the din". You’re absolutely justified in suspecting that the “un” in “uncanny” doesn’t necessarily mean “not.” It’s ironic that the one “rule” of English word-formation that everyone knows so often turns out to be misleading. I even asked my parents about it at the time b/c of my childhood level of understanding the negating prefix (“in”). We do not implement these annoying types of ads!

“Canny” was picked up by English writers in the 17th century, who applied it to the Scots themselves in the sense of “cunning,” “wily” or “thrifty,” in line with the English portrayal of Scots as clever and frugal.

Uncanny is often used to describe something that is supernatural, but not always.

oooh witchcraft, we don’t know, unknown, uncanny. The main difference between Canny and Uncanny is that the Canny is a family name and Uncanny is a psychological experience of something as strangely familiar, rather than simply mysterious. Having pleasing or useful qualities; gentle.