Unpolished comes from un- ('not') + polished, from polish, from Old French poliss-, stem of polir, from Latin polire ('to make smooth'). The historical chain includes Old English un- and Latin polire. The quoted older senses, "not" and "to make smooth", supply the semantic anchors for unpolished. The formation is best read as compound and borrowed: the word unpolished carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a adj, "not polished; lacking refinement or finish". Related English forms include polish, polished, and unpolish. The result is a adj whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.