Undone vs Not done

Question

I'm used to the pair 'Undo/Redo' in various programs, so I assumed that 'undone' means that 'something was done and reverted later', not just 'planned but not finished' or 'not yet completed'.
But Merriam-Webster just gives 'not done' as a synonym, without this subtle meaning that I presumed.
Can somebody clarify this for me, please?

LPH · Accepted Answer

There is a difference between the past participle of "undo" and the adjective "undone".  The OALD, as the Merriam-Webster dictionary does not take this meaning into account, but the SOED does (reversed, annuled).

(OALD undone adjective [not usually before noun]
1/ ​(especially of clothing) not fastened or tied
​2/ (especially of work) not finished
3/ ​(old use) (of a person) defeated and without any hope for the future

The SOED lists "undone" three times, two entries are adjectives and one is the  past participle of "undo".

(SOED) undone a.¹ Not done, unaccomplished, uneffected, incomplete.

(SOED) undone a.² 1. Ruined, destroyed; reversed, annulled.
2 Unfastened, untied, loosened

BoldBen · Answer

In the context of IT undo is often a synonym for roll back or uncommit. These are terms which are specific to data processing and mean:

reverse the process of updating the record or records you have just updated so that the database is restored to its previous state with respect to that set of records.

In the case of hierarchic databases this usually means to examine a set of actions in the database log and reverse them.
This is not the normal meaning of "undone" as defined in MW but it does have parallels in normal speech such as "undo a knot" which means "untie" and "undo all your good work" meaning to render what has been achieved void.

Undone vs Not done

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