faux-naïfn.adj.
/ˌfəʊnʌɪˈiːf/, /ˌfəʊnɑːˈiːf/, U.S. /ˌfoʊˌnaɪˈif/, /ˌfoʊˌnɑˈif/ A. n.
A person who pretends to be simple or unaffected and adopts a childish or naïve manner.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > affected behaviour or affectation > [noun] > person affecting naivety
faux-naïf1941
1941 Fortune July 111 Gibbs..is a faux-naïf: he pretends to have no social graces.
1952 W. Plomer Museum Pieces 28 Mother loves to pretend to be extremely simple. She's a fausse naïve.
1961 Times 13 May 5/2 That terrible affliction of the folk-singer, the faux-naïf.
1964 G. Sims Terrible Door xxvi. 140 The fauxnaif would have been dumped..in Poole Harbour.
B. adj.
a. Of a work of art: self-consciously or meretriciously simple and artless.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > the arts in general > [adjective] > qualities of works generally
wateryc1230
polite?a1500
meagre1539
over-laboured1579
bald1589
spiritless1592
light1597
meretricious1633
standing1661
effectual1662
airy1664
severe1665
correct1676
enervatea1704
free1728
classic1743
academic1752
academical1752
chaste1753
nerveless1763
epic1769
crude1786
effective1790
creative1791
soulless1794
mannered1796
manneristical1830
manneristic1837
subjective1840
inartisticala1849
abstract1857
inartistic1859
literary1900
period1905
atmospheric1908
dateless1908
atmosphered1920
non-naturalistic1925
self-indulgent1926
free-styled1933
soft-centred1935
freestyle1938
pseudish1938
decadent1942
post-human1944
kitschy1946
faux-naïf1958
spare1965
1958 Listener 3 July 31/3 As music, ‘Catulli Carmina’ uses the same naive technical procedures as the earlier ‘Carmina Burana’, but here they have degenerated into faux-naïf mannerism.
1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 21 Nov. p. ii/4 Faux-naïf pictures..the kind calculated to raise a snigger among grown-ups and fury in the young.
b. Of a person: affectedly simple or naïve; pretendedly ingenuous.
ΚΠ
1970 Times 18 Apr. p. iv/2 The language is faultlessly faux-naif—a recreation of the idioms of a child's thinking.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1972; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1941