illiterate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin illitterātus (“unlettered, unlearned”), also spelled illīterātus,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from in- (“not”), assimilated before l,^[5][3][7] and litterātus (“furnished with letters, learned”),^[2][3][5] which is the source of literate and comes from littera (“letter of the alphabet”).^[5] In Latin it also meant ignorant, uncultured and inelegant.^[5] Old English had used unstæfwis as a loan-translation of the Latin word.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Uneducated, unable to read and write: probably before 1425, in a translation of Higden's Polychronicon, according to Barnhart.^[3] Etymonline also dates it to the early 15th century, when it meant in particular unable to read Latin,^[5] but the OED's first record is from 1556.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Dated quotations in the OED begin in 1556, of people ignorant of letters or without book-learning; from 1598 it was also said of things showing such ignorance, such as a style.^[2] Milton in 1645 used it in the literal Latin sense "unwritten, not expressed in words", which stayed rare.^[2] The noun, an illiterate person, appeared in 1628, in George Wither.^[2][3] Johnson (1755) defined the adjective as "unlettered; untaught; unlearned".^[8] With the spread of census returns and ballots the word came to mean specifically unable to read,^[2] and today it is also used of a lack of knowledge in one field, as in computer illiterate.^[9] Horace Walpole coined the jocular plural illiterati in 1788,^[5] and illiteracy dates from 1660.^[3]

Timeline

• before 1425 – unlearned, unable to read, in a translation of Higden's Polychronicon.^[3]
• 1556 – of persons, unlettered, without book-learning.^[2]
• 1598 – of things, showing ignorance or lack of learning.^[2]
• 1628 – noun, an illiterate person.^[2][3]
• 1645 – unwritten, not expressed in words (rare).^[2]
• 1660 – illiteracy.^[3]
• 1788 – illiterati.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Unable to read and write: Much of the village was still illiterate in 1900.^[9][10][2]
2. Having little education; ignorant or uncultured, also in a particular field: She was musically illiterate but loved the opera.^[9][10]
3. Showing a poor command of the accepted usage of reading and writing: an illiterate letter.^[9][10]

Noun

1. A person who cannot read or write, or who is uneducated.^[9][10][2]

Word family

• illiterately
• illiterateness
• illiteracy

Related words

• literate
• letter
• literature
• literal

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster