incredulous

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin incrēdulus (“unbelieving”) with the English suffix -ous,^[2][3][4] the Latin adjective being formed from in- (“not”) and crēdulus (“believing, trusting”),^[5][6][7][8] from crēdō (“to believe”).^[3][6] Etymonline traces the Latin verb to a compound Proto-Indo-European *kerd-dhe- (“to put one's heart”).^[6] English had earlier borrowed French incrédule as incredule, used from about 1550 and now obsolete.^[2] The Latin adjective without the prefix gave credulous.^[6][7][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Incredibly, as an adverb: 1533, in a letter of Bonner to Henry VIII printed in Burnet's History of the Reformation (1715), a use now obsolete.^[2] The main sense, unbelieving or sceptical, is first recorded in 1578 in Lyly's Euphues;^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and the 1989 edition of the OED give 1579,^[8][9] and Etymonline the 1570s.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word was formerly also used of religious unbelief, a sense that the OED notes is no longer current.^[2][6][4] From 1613, in Purchas's Pilgrimage, it described actions and looks that show disbelief.^[2][4] Shakespeare used it in Twelfth Night for "not to be believed", the meaning of incredible, a use the OED records until 1750.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "hard of belief; refusing credit", with a quotation from Bacon.^[10]

Timeline

• 1533 – adverb, incredibly (obsolete).^[2]
• 1578 – unbelieving, sceptical, formerly also of religious unbelief.^[2]
• before 1616 – not to be believed, incredible (obsolete by 1750), in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.^[2] The 1989 edition of the OED dates it 1601.^[9]
• 1613 – of actions or looks, showing disbelief.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Unwilling or unable to believe something; sceptical: At first the neighbours were incredulous of the news.^[11][8][2]
2. Showing disbelief: She gave an incredulous laugh.^[2][4]
3. Not to be believed; incredible (obsolete).^[2][9]

Word family

• incredulously
• incredulousness

Related words

• incredulity
• credulous
• incredible
• credence
• credit
• creed
• credo

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins