Other forms: unearthed, unearthing, unearths
To unearth is to dig something up, or to bring a fact to light. Unearth a hoard, unearthed the documents, unearth the truth.
The literal and figurative senses are equally common, and both carry the idea that the thing was hidden and is now out. It was first used of digging animals out of their burrows. Note the un- meaning out of rather than not, which is unusual.
1verbdigTo dig something up.
“Farmers ploughing the field unearthed a pot full of Roman coins.”
2verbunearthTo bring a hidden fact to light.
“The journalist unearthed evidence that the mayor had lied.”
unearth is a digging out.
Middle English
erthe
English
earth
English, today
unearth
From un- + earth. earth comes from Middle English erthe. From Middle English erthe, from Old English eorþe, from Proto-West Germanic erþu, from Proto-Germanic erþō (“dirt, ground, earth”), from Proto-Indo-European h₁er- (“earth”). 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA