uncriticaladj.n.
/(ˌ)ʌnˈkrɪtᵻkl/, /(ˌ)ʌŋˈkrɪtᵻkl/, U.S. /ˌənˈkrɪdək(ə)l/ A. adj.† 3. Of an illness: not serious or life-threatening. Obsolete.Apparently an isolated use for humorous effect.
1. Lacking good judgement; undiscriminating; undiscerning. Also: not expressing or inclined to express harsh criticism of a person or thing; not censorious.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > judgement or decision > misjudgement > indiscriminateness > [adjective]
blinda1400
unchoosinga1586
undiscerning1589
unrespective1609
irrespecting1625
promiscuous1633
incurious1645
indistinct1650
irrespective1650
uncritical1659
indiscerning1664
undistinguishing1665
undistinguishable1702
unrefining1735
indiscriminating1754
undiscriminating1776
indiscriminate1792
unfastidious1816
rough1819
lumping1827
indistinguishing1828
unparticularizing1828
farraginous1837
imperceiverant1844
scattergun1845
undistinctive1851
indiscriminative1854
unselecting1895
scattershot1961
1659 J. Gauden Ἱερα Δακρυα i. i. 24 We are not so rude understanders, or uncriticall speakers.
1854 F. D. Maurice Moral & Metaphysical Philos. (ed. 2) II. 20 It has been the ungrateful fashion of some modern historians to speak of him as an uncritical retailer of anecdotes.
1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer II. xx. 176 He played moderately, but quite well enough to satisfy the uncritical audience.
1938 Times Lit. Suppl. 5 Mar. 153/1 Mr. Tourtellot is prepared to join the ranks of the admiring assemblée and to gaze at her with uncritical eyes.
2006 Sunday Times (Nexis) 19 Mar. (Appointments section) 8/6 Authoritarians demand rigid adherence to rules and an uncritical acceptance of authority.
2. Esp. in the context of the scholarly analysis or evaluation of texts: not in accordance with critical methods; lacking critical exactness.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > judgement or decision > misjudgement > indiscriminateness > [adjective] > showing lack of critical exactness
uncritical1731
1731 R. Smalbroke Vindic. Miracles II. i. 246 This Commentary is falsly ascribed to Jerome; and therefore Mr. W.'s Quotation of him is highly Uncritical.
1855 J. Phillips Man. Geol. 420 A perverse and uncritical application of the Mosaic narrative.
1874 J. P. Mahaffy Social Life Greece vii. 215 It is uncritical to judge an age by its greatest men.
1886 H. C. G. Moule Epist. Ephesians Introd. 25 Marcion was a ruthless and most uncritical emendator, or rather lacerator, of the Scripture text.
1953 Jewish Q. Rev. 43 258 He..became entangled in a mesh of incongruities which he tried to explain away by a highly artificial and uncritical exegesis.
2002 Humanistica Lovaniensia 51 18 The De deis gentium historia is not at all an easy, careless, unmethodical and, from a philological point of view, uncritical compilation.
ΚΠ
1767 L. Sterne Life Tristram Shandy IX. xxiv. 85 I lost some fourscore ounces of blood this week in a most uncritical fever which attacked me at the beginning of this chapter.
B. n.
With the and plural agreement. Uncritical people considered collectively.
ΚΠ
1868 J. H. Blunt Reformation Church of Eng. I. xi. 546 The marvellous facility which the anti-Church party possessed of saying much about nothing..earned for them a credit for learning among the uncritical and the ignorant.
1888 W. J. Loftie Orient Line Guide (ed. 3) iii. 39 The merits of this picture are not easily enumerated without the use of those technical terms which are so puzzling to the uncritical.
1998 Africa News (Nexis) 17 Sept. Only the uncritical and the uninformed can be taken in by these assertions and allegations.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2022).
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adj.n.1659