Unfriendly means not warm or welcoming. No smile, no small talk, nothing offered.
It is milder than hostile and stronger than merely quiet, and it fits people, places and manner alike — an unfriendly welcome, an unfriendly town, an unfriendly silence. Modern English also hangs it on the end of things that make life hard, which is where user-unfriendly and environmentally unfriendly come from. Its opposite works the same way in reverse, giving us family-friendly and dog-friendly.
1adjectiveunfriendlyNot kind, warm or welcoming.
“The staff were distinctly unfriendly.”
Old English
*unfrēondlīċ
Middle English
unfrendly
English, today
unfriendly
Built from
From Middle English unfrendly, unfrendli, unfrendely, from Old English unfrēondlīċ (suggested by derivative unfrēondlīċe (“in an unfriendly manner; unfriendly”)), equivalent to un- + friendly. Cognate with stq uunfrüntelk, uunfjuntelk (“unfriendly”), West Frisian ûnfreonlik (“unfriendly”), Dutch onvriendelijk (“unfriendly”), German Low German unfrünnelk (“unfriendly”), German unfreundlich (“unfriendly”), Faroese ófryntligur (“unfriendly”), Icelandic ófrýnilegur (“ugly; disturbing”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA