Untaught

ppl. a. [UN-¹ 8 b.]

  1.  Not enlightened or trained by teaching; uninstructed, ignorant.

c. 1340.  Hampole, Pr. Consc., 5873. Maysters [shall give account] of þair disciples … Þat þai lete be unthewed, and untaght ga.

1382.  Wyclif, Ecclus. viii. 5. Comune thou not to a man vntaȝt.

c. 1460.  Play Sacram., 558 [636]. Syr, thu art ontawght to come in thus henly [sic].

1567.  Drant, Horace, Ep., I. i. G vj. The greater companye, in vertue few, and base, Vntaught blockheads, braineles.

1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., I. iii. 43. He call’d them vntaught Knaues, Vnmannerly.

1602.  2nd Pt. Return Parnass., V. i. 1986. With vntaught hand, and with vntuned hart.

1649.  Davenant, Love & Hon., III. ii. 3. Fit only to perswade the easinesse Of untaught babes.

1709.  Steele, Tatler, No. 167, ¶ 1. The rude and untaught Multitude.

1784.  Cowper, Task, II. 359. He teaches those to read, whom schools dismiss’d, And colleges, untaught.

1847.  C. Brontë, J. Eyre, xxxii. Wholly untaught, with faculties quite torpid, they seemed to me hopelessly dull.

1882.  Besant, All Sorts, xxviii. The crude theories of untaught, if generous, youth.

  absol.  1382.  Wyclif, 1 Chron. xxv. 8. Thei leyden lottis by their whilis euenly,… the tauȝt and vntauȝt to gyder.

1728.  Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Substantive, The Taught have the Advantage of the Untaught.

a. 1832.  Crabbe, Posth. Tales, II. 169. He knew not how For the untaught and ill-taught to allow.

  Prov.  c. 1530.  in Songs, Carols, etc. (E.E.T.S.), 129. Better it is to be wnborne than wntawght.

1557.  F. S[eager], School Virtue, C iij. The common prouerbe remember ye oughte, ‘Better vnfedde then vn-taughte.’

  b.  Const. with inf., in, or objective complement.

1581.  Howell, Devises, M ij. Like a childe agayne, vntaught the sleightes of dayntie mindes.

a. 1593.  Marlowe, Hero & Leander, I. 392. Her mind pure, and her toong vntaught to glose.

1642.  H. More, Song of Soul, II. III. iii. 42. Untought In subtilties they shew themselves in jangling stout.

1683.  Dryden, Ovid’s Ep., Helen to Paris, 139. My hand is yet untaught to write to Men.

1762.  Sir W. Jones, Arcadia, Poems, etc. (1772), 135. Daphne, yet untaught in am’rous lore, Felt … pains unknown before.

1784.  Cowper, Tiroc., 379. Untaught The knowledge of the world, and dull of thought!

1794.  Wordsw., Guilt & Sorrow, xxxiii. We gazed with terror on their gloomy sleep, Untaught that soon such anguish must ensue.

1827.  Keble, Chr. Y., Convers. St. Paul, vi. His strain’d eye … Still gazing, though untaught to bear Th’ insufferable light.

  c.  Of animals, etc.

1697.  Dryden, Æneis, VI. 348. Four sable bullocks, in the yoke untaught.

1725.  Pope, Odyss., VII. 153. The balmy spirit of the western gale Eternal breathes on fruits untaught to fail.

1743.  Francis, trans. Hor., Epodes, xvi. 57. Where Goats untaught forsake the flowery Vale.

1817.  Byron, Mazeppa, ix. A noble steed,… Wild as the wild deer, and untaught.

1863.  Conington, Horace, Odes, III. iii. 14. For this … tigers drew Thy glorious car, untaught to slave In harness.

  2.  Not imparted or acquired by teaching; hence, natural, spontaneous.

c. 1445.  Pecock, Donet, 6. Bettir it is … þan forto leve alle suche þingis vnwritun and vntauȝt. Ibid. (c. 1449), Repr., I. xx. 127. This other maner of … witnessing bi Holi Scripture, which is left here vnseid and vntauȝt.

1533.  More, Answ. Supper of Lord, I. xvii. Wks. 1064/1. Leauing that vntaught til y^e time of his maundy supper.

a. 1586.  Sidney, Arcadia, III. xxiv. Delivering from his hart two or three (untaught) sighes.

1611.  Shaks., Cymb., IV. ii. 178. ’Tis wonder That an inuisible instinct should frame them To Royalty vnlearn’d, Honor vntaught.

1656.  Cowley, Davideis, I. 821. Flocks of Birds … Teaching their Maker in their untaught lays.

1712.  Steele, Spect., No. 276, ¶ 3. I have a natural Voice, and a pretty untaught Step in Dancing.

1742.  Gray, Spring, 7. The untaught harmony of spring.

1836.  Cdl. Wiseman, Lect. Cath. Ch. (1847), 3. Many doctrines untaught by Him.

1865.  Tylor, Early Hist. Man., ii. 19. The untaught signs made by born deaf-mutes.

  Hence Untaughtness.

1840.  S. Clark, in Mem. Jrnls. & Lett. (1878), 131. I have to suffer from my untaughtness.