Uncanny

[surreyman]

Is the word canny, meaning shrewd or knowing, related to the word uncanny, meaning weird or mysterious?  

[Quizmonster]

There is a connection. 'Canny' was originally related to the verb 'can' in the sense of being 'able to' and, in that way, also related to the word 'cunning' in its original meaning...ie as 'knowing'. A 'cunning woman' was, effectively, a witch.

From 'knowing', it took on the suggestion of 'wary' or 'cautious'. 'Uncanny' can also mean 'incautious' as well as 'weird' and from 'incautious' it developed suggestions of 'malicious' or 'unreliable'. In the latter senses, it took on the idea of being unreliable because of supernatural connections in the middle of the 18th century.

So, yes, there is a relationship between the words in the 'cunning' sense.

[surreyman]

Thanks QM. I knew i could rely on you to get to the bottom of it.

[Kingaroo]

QM, maybe I'm referring to basically the same root origin, but I think they both (and cunning) come from "ken" = to know. I would have thought "uncanny" originally meant "un-ken-able", unknowable, mysterious, beyond comprehension.

It wouldn't have to come by way of "incautious" or "unreliable".

[Quizmonster]

The meaning-sequence I suggested is largely that offered by 'TOED', K, and I'm always happy to go along with it! It's not so much that 'canny' and 'uncanny' come from 'ken', as both 'can' and 'ken' are contemporaneous from around 1000 AD in the forms 'cunnan' and 'cennan'.