naïf
See also: naif
English
Alternative forms
Adjective
naïf (comparative more naïf, superlative most naïf)
- Naive.
- 1947, S.E. Morison, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Little, Brown, & Company, page 5:
- Doenitz was naïf to assume that England would have stood idly by while Germany built up her U-boat force to four figures; but it was true enough that the German Navy was unprepared for a submarine war.
- 1947, S.E. Morison, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Little, Brown, & Company, page 5:
Translations
one who is naive — see naif
French
Etymology
From Old French naïf, inherited from Latin nātīvus. Doublet of natif. Semantical shift from "original; natural; simple" to "simple-minded".
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /na.if/
Audio (file)
Adjective
naïf (feminine singular naïve, masculine plural naïfs, feminine plural naïves)
- naive, dewy-eyed; gullible
- Il est vraiment naïf, il a gobé tout ce qu'ils lui ont raconté.
- He is really naive, he swallowed everything that they told him.
- 1923, Marcel Proust, La prisonnière
- Habituellement, on déteste ce qui nous est semblable, et nos propres défauts vus du dehors nous exaspèrent. Combien plus encore quand quelqu’un qui a passé l’âge où on les exprime naïvement et qui, par exemple, s’est fait dans les moments les plus brûlants un visage de glace, exècre-t-il les mêmes défauts, si c’est un autre, plus jeune, ou plus naïf, ou plus sot, qui les exprime !
- As a general rule, we detest what resembles ourself, and our own faults when observed in another person infuriate us. How much the more does a man who has passed the age at which we instinctively display them, a man who, for instance, has gone through the most burning moments with an icy countenance, execrate those same faults, if it is another man, younger or simpler or stupider, that is displaying them.
- Translated by Charles Kenneth Scott Moncrieff
- As a general rule, we detest what resembles ourself, and our own faults when observed in another person infuriate us. How much the more does a man who has passed the age at which we instinctively display them, a man who, for instance, has gone through the most burning moments with an icy countenance, execrate those same faults, if it is another man, younger or simpler or stupider, that is displaying them.
- Habituellement, on déteste ce qui nous est semblable, et nos propres défauts vus du dehors nous exaspèrent. Combien plus encore quand quelqu’un qui a passé l’âge où on les exprime naïvement et qui, par exemple, s’est fait dans les moments les plus brûlants un visage de glace, exècre-t-il les mêmes défauts, si c’est un autre, plus jeune, ou plus naïf, ou plus sot, qui les exprime !
Further reading
- “naïf” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Italian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /naˈif/, [n̺äˈif]
- Hyphenation: na‧ïf
Noun
naïf (invariable)
- a naive person
Anagrams
This article is issued from
Wiktionary.
The text is licensed under Creative
Commons - Attribution - Sharealike.
Additional terms may apply for the media files.