- unemployed (adj.)
- 1600, "at leisure, not occupied," from un- (1) "not" + past participle of employ (v.). Meaning "temporarily out of work" is from 1660s. The noun meaning "unemployed persons collectively" is from 1782.
No man has hired us
With pocketed hands
And lowered faces
We stand about in open places
And shiver in unlit rooms ...
[T.S. Eliot, "Choruses from the Rock"]
