‖ naïf, a.
(naif)
Also naif, (6–7 naife).
[F. naïf:—L. nātīv-um: see naïve.]
1. a. Natural, artless, naïve.
| 1598 Galloway in M. Napier Mem. J. Napier viii. (1834) 296 Not affectat, bot naturall and naife. [1656 Blount Glossogr., Naif (Fr.), lively, quick, natural.] 1784 F. Burney Diary 15 Jan., I was half ready to laugh,—there was something so naïf in the complaint. 1807 Syd. Smith Wks. (1850) 84 The naïf manner in which he speaks of the vestiges of ecclesiastical history. 1846 Mill Diss. & Disc. (1859) II. 298 The European mind had returned to something like the naïf unsuspecting faith of primitive times. 1885 Manch. Exam. 18 Feb. 3/2 Had these delightfully naïf sentences been written a century ago. |
b. As n.
| 1893 G. B. Shaw in World 10 May 28/2 You will sometimes find some naïf doing this, and verdantly assuming that his point of view commands the absolute truth. 1932 T. S. Eliot Sel. Ess. 305 He [sc. Blake] becomes the apparent naïf, really the mature intelligence. 1968 L. Durrell Tunc ii. 36 Somewhere inside she was a naïf—always a bad sign in a woman connected with politics and public life. 1975 Times Lit. Suppl. 20 June 701/1 The Bronowski who concluded this was no mathematical naïf... He had spent a whole decade as a senior lecturer in mathematics. |
c. Art. See naïve a. 1 c.
| 1947 M. McCarthy in Partisan Rev. XIV. 178 As in the case of the naif painters, his very faults, the crudity of his conceptions,..become part of the subject. 1955 ― Charmed Life (1956) iii. 58 If Warren had been a carpenter or a plumber, he could have made his marks as a naif painter. 1974 Times 7 Jan. 8/1 At the age of 39, Haddelsey is one of the world's leading naif painters. |
† 2. (See quots.) Obs. rare.
| 1656 Blount Glossogr. s.v., Jewellers..when they speak of a Diamond that is perfect in all its properties, as in the water, shape, cleanness, &c...say tis a Naif Stone; others, account a Naif Stone, to be one that is found growing naturally in such perfection, as if it had been artificially cut. 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 213 Uncut Stones [diamonds] are distinguished in two sorts, Thick or Pointed, which are called Naife-Stones, and Flat Stones. |
Hence naˈïfly adv. rare.
| c 1655 Sidney in 19th Cent. (1884) Jan. 64 Having noe other intention but to ease my troubled thoughts..by setting downe naifely the true state of my mind. 1887 Sat. Rev. 1 Oct. 443 The naïf and naïfly expressed vexation of the Irish Nationalist papers. |