Could someone please elaborate what this definition of "unto" means in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary? This is the definition: "used as a function word to indicate reference or concern". This is the usage example: "they became a world unto themselves —Anne T. Fleming".
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2they became a world unto themselves means they didn't meaningfully interact with or reference the "outside" word. They were only concerned with their own selves, inhabiting their "private universe". But don't waste time trying to understand the meaning of unto in isolation here. It's effectively an idiom. With variants such as He is a law unto himself (he doesn't care about society's laws; he makes up and lives by his own laws).– FumbleFingersCommented Feb 9 at 18:16
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2The Collins explains it more fully: If you say that something is, for example, a world unto itself or a place unto itself, you mean that it has special qualities that it does not share with other, similar things, and so it should be treated or understood differently from those other things.– LambieCommented Feb 9 at 18:16
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1 Answer
Note that this is definition number 2, with 1 simply saying that "unto" means the same thing as "to." In the example sentence, replacing "unto" with "to" ("They became a world to themselves") doesn't work quite the same way, so this definition is pretty much just for this usage.
Calling it a "function word" basically just means "yeah, this word doesn't really contribute its own meaning to this phrase, it just helps it work." And by "reference or concern," they mean that the "world unto themselves" paraphrases to "a world concerning themselves, or having to do with themselves (having a scope of reference)."
