Unborn means not yet brought into the world. An unborn child, generations unborn, the unborn.
It appears in two very different arguments: in the abortion debate, where the word itself is contested and doctors more often say foetus, and in talk of duty to unborn generations, which is the standard framing of environmental obligation.
1adjectiveunbornNot yet brought into the world.
“The pregnant woman stopped drinking coffee to protect her unborn baby.”
unborn is a state.
Old English unboren, un- plus born. The prefix un- has negated adjectives in English for as long as there has been English.
Proto-Germanic
*unburanaz
Old English
unboren
Middle English
unborn
English, today
unborn
From Middle English unborn, from Old English unboren, from Proto-Germanic unburanaz. Equivalent to un- + born.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA