Unreal comes from un- ('not') + real, from Old French reel, from Late Latin realis ('actual'), from Latin res ('thing, matter'). The historical chain includes Old English un- and Latin res. The quoted older senses, "not", "actual", and "thing, matter", supply the semantic anchors for unreal. The formation is best read as compound and borrowed: the word unreal carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a adj, "not real or existing; seeming imaginary or implausible". English derivatives include unreality and unreally; related English forms include real, reality, and realness. The result is a adj whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.