a. [f. LETTER sb.1 + -LESS.] Devoid of letters.
1. Unacquainted with letters or literature; illiterate. Also absol.
a. 1618. Sylvester, Quadrains of Pibrac, xcvii. ’Tis to be more than Sylla Letter-lesse.
1653. Waterhouse, Apol. Learn., 125. A meer daring letterlesse Commander can (in a rational way) promise himself no more successe in his Enterprise, then a Mastiff can in his contest with a Lion.
1756. Law, Lett. Import. Subj., 24. They help the ignorant and letterless to … a knowledge of God.
1860. Q. Rev., CVIII. 225. Silbury Hill … the attempt of a letterless race to perpetuate the memory of some event.
1880. P. Greg, Errant, II. v. 59. Bookless captain and letterless subaltern.
1884. J. Allen Holt, in Century Mag., XXVIII. 157/2. There was an illiterate generation, and a letterless race to be educated.
2. Having no letters or correspondence.
1837. Lett. fr. Madras (1843), 62. Unfortunate beings so letterless as to be able to pay them [sc. visits].
1884. Bp. Thorold, Yoke of Christ, 105. A London Sunday … is absolutely letterless.
1886. Mrs. A. Hunt, That other Person, II. 49. She wrote to him each day, and bemoaned her letterless condition.
3. Having no letters inscribed or appended.
1881. Educational Times, Feb. 1, 65/1. The title of ‘L. Mus.,’ and it was only retained by those who would have been absolutely letterless but for this domestic honour.
1886. Macleod, Clyde District Dumbartonsh., i. 6. This ancient letterless slab.
