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illiterate, a. (n.)|ɪˈlɪtərət|
Also 6 illitturate, 6–7 illeterate, 7 illitterate.
[ad. L. illitterāt-us (less correctly illīt-) unlettered, unwritten, f. il- (il-2) + litterātūs (līt-) furnished with letters, learned, liberally educated (see literate).]
A. adj.
1. a. Of persons: Ignorant of letters or literature; without book-learning or education; unlettered, unlearned; spec. (in reference to census returns, voting by ballot papers, etc.) unable to read, i.e. totally illiterate. Also, more generally, characterized by ignorance or lack of learning or subtlety (in any sphere of activity). Cf. illiteracy.
1556Lauder Tractate 453 No more can Iudgis Illitturate Discus ane mater. a1635Naunton Fragm. Reg. (Arb.) 50 Neither [was he] illiterate; for he was, as he would often professe, a friend to Sir Philip Sidney, and there are of his now extant, some fragments of his Poem. 1670W. Clarke Nitre 29 Every illiterate person talks of Brimstone in Lightning. 1748Chesterfield Lett. (1792) II. clii. 38 The word illiterate, in its common acceptation, means a man who is ignorant of those two languages [Greek and Latin]. 1826E. Irving Babylon II. viii. 291 The illiterate fishermen of Galilee overcame the wit and learning of Greece and Rome. 1881Echo 13 Jan. 1/5 The illiterate voter appeared rather prominently in the proceedings. 1953Ann. Reg. 1952 397 The pre-war type of speculative builder's house, which by its illiterate design..had been largely responsible for the poor reputation of English suburban architecture. 1956C. S. Lewis Let. (1966) 268 One must first distinguish the effect which music has on..people like me who are musically illiterate and get only the emotional effect. 1962Sunday Times (Colour Suppl.) 10 June 4 The ‘traditionalists’, who are in the main musically illiterate.
b. Of things: Characterized by or showing ignorance of letters, or absence of learning or education; unlearned, unpolished.
1597A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. * 6 b, The harshnes of my illeterate and rude stile. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. iii. xv. (1651) 134 The Civil Law with us..an illiterate and barbarous Study. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. II. 75 The disadvantage of an illiterate education. 1870Max Müller Sc. Relig. (1873) 102 The..crowd of bookless or illiterate religions.
2. In sense of L. illïtterātus: Unfurnished with letters, not written upon; not expressed in words; unwritten; inarticulate. rare.
1645Milton Tetrach. (1851) 198 Confidently to those who have read good bookes, and to those whose reason is not an illiterate booke to themselves I appeale. 1715tr. C'tess D'Aunoy's Wks. 428 All good Council we refuse, And our Illiterate Sorrows only bear. 1888E. Peacock in Cath. Househ. 18 Aug. 11/1 Some few old bells..are without any inscription, but these ‘illiterate’ bells are very rare.
B. n. An illiterate, unlearned, or uneducated person; spec. (in reference to census or polling returns, etc.), a person unable to read.
1628Wither Brit. Rememb. v. 1737 Not as a weakling, or illiterate. 1710Steele Tatler No. 200 ⁋3 There is no manner of Competition between a Man of Liberal Education and an Illiterate. 1865Pall Mall G. 13 Sept. 4/1 We have been told that the intellectual tests we have introduced into our army will exclude from it the dashing illiterates whose stout hearts and strong thews and sinews made it what it was under the Duke. 1883Athenæum 3 Feb. 152/2 Regarding the number of ‘cannot reads’..Iowa is the ‘banner State’, having out of its total population but 2·4 per cent. of illiterates. 1893Times 3 Aug. 7/3 [He] stated that in Ireland the illiterates were 21 per cent. of the electors. |