Unkempt means untidy and uncared for. Unkempt hair, an unkempt garden, unkempt and unshaven.
It suggests neglect over time rather than a bad morning, which is why it applies to gardens and beards as readily as to hair. The kempt in it is an old past participle of comb — unkempt means literally uncombed, and kempt on its own is a back-formation people made later.
1adjectiveunkemptUntidy and uncared for.
“He came out of the forest with a long, unkempt beard and torn clothes.”
synonyms: dishevelled, scruffy
unkempt is a quality of untidiness.
Unkempt is an older unkembed, from un- plus kembed, combed. Comb is the same word.
Middle English
unkempt — uncombed
English, today
unkempt
From earlier unkembed, unkemmed, from Middle English unkempt (“uncombed”), equivalent to un + kempt. Compare Old Norse úkembdr uncombed; unkempt"; whence Icelandic ókembdur, German ungekämmt (“unkempt”), Dutch ongekamd. More at kemb.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA