Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Germanic *un- Proto-West Germanic *un- Old English un- Middle English un- English un- Proto-Indo-European *h₁lengʷʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-us Proto-Indo-European *h₁léngʰusder. ▲ Proto-Italic *breɣʷisinflu.? Proto-Italic *leɣʷis Latin levis Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin levō Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥ Proto-Italic *-mn̥ Latin -men Vulgar Latin *levāmender. Old French levainbor. Middle English levayn English leaven English leavened English unleavened Proto-Germanic *-in- ▲ Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ti Proto-Germanic *-ōną Proto-Germanic *-inōną Proto-Indo-European *-dyé- Proto-Germanic *-atjaną Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Germanic *-þuz Proto-Germanic *-assuz Proto-Germanic *-inassuz Proto-West Germanic *-nassī Old English -nes Middle English -nesse English -ness English unleavenedness From unleavened (“not being raised with a leaven or raising agent; (figurative) unaffected by something, unmoderated, unrelieved”) + -ness (suffix attached to adjectives forming abstract nouns with the sense ‘the quality or state of being [the adjective]’). Sense 1.2 (“condition or quality of being unaffected by something”) refers to a leaven such as yeast permeating through a dough and causing it to rise. Specifically, sense 1.2.2 (“condition or quality or being unaffected by sin”) refers to leaven being used in the Bible as a metaphor for sin affecting a person. See, for example, 1 Corinthians 5:6–8 (King James Version; spelling modernized): “[K]now ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the Feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness: but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

uncontrolledness