insincere

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin insincērus (“spoiled, corrupted; not genuine, not pure, adulterated”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed from in- (“not”) and sincērus (“genuine, pure, candid”),^[2][3][4][6] the source of sincere and a word of uncertain origin.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Not genuine in speech or conduct, putting on a false appearance, of people and their behaviour: 1634, in J. Canne's Necessitie of Separation.^[2][5] Dictionary.com gives the range 1625–35,^[7] and Etymonline infers the adjective in the 1620s from insincerely.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Latin word could describe spoiled or adulterated things,^[3][2] and English had that use beside the moral one: the OED records an obsolete sense "not pure, unsound", without a date.^[2][3] Johnson (1755) kept the two apart, as "not what he appears; not hearty; dissembling" and "not sound; corrupted", the second with a couplet from Pope about making the blessings of sleep insincere; his 1773 edition labels them "of persons" and "of things".^[8] Collins and Merriam-Webster Unabridged now give only the first.^[9][5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged applies the word both to a person who is not what he or she seems and to something like a denial that does not rest on an honest appraisal.^[5]

Timeline

• 1634 – of people and their conduct, not sincere; dissembling.^[2][5] The Shorter Oxford dates the adverb insincerely to the early 17th century.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a person, not being or saying what one appears to be or say; hypocritical, dissembling: He thanked them with an insincere smile.^[5][9][2]
2. Of words or actions, not based on what is really felt or known; not genuine: an insincere apology.^[5][2]
3. (obsolete) Of things, not pure; adulterated, unsound.^[2][8]

Word family

• insincerely
• insincerity

Related words

• sincere

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b 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 Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press