credulous

English

Etymology

Originated in 1576, borrowed from Latin crēdulus (“that easily believes a thing, credulous”), from crēdō (“I believe”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɹɛd͡ʒələs/, /ˈkɹɛdjələs/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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Adjective

credulous (comparative more credulous, superlative most credulous)

1. Excessively ready to believe things; gullible.

   Synonyms: naive, unworldly; see also Thesaurus:gullible

   • 1620, Giovanni Bocaccio, translated by John Florio, The Decameron, Containing an Hundred Pleaſant Nouels: Wittily Diſcourſed, Betweene Seuen Honourable Ladies, and Three Noble Gentlemen‎^[1], Isaac Iaggard, Nouell 8, The Eighth Day:

     […] purſued his vnneighbourly purpoſe in ſuch ſort: that hee being the ſtronger perſwader, and ſhe (belike) too credulous in beleeuing or elſe ouer-feeble in reſiſting, from priuate imparlance, they fell to action; and continued their cloſe fight a long while together, vnſeene and vvithout ſuſpition, no doubt to their equall ioy and contentment.

   • 1934 October, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 3, in Burmese Days, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, →OCLC:

     The doctor was a small, black, plump man with fuzzy hair and round, credulous eyes.

2. Believed too readily.
   • c. 1604–1626, doubtfully attributed to Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “The Faithful Friends”, in Henry [William] Weber, editor, The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher, in Fourteen Volumes: […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] F[rancis] C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington;  […], published 1812, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i, page 99:

     'Twas he possess'd me with your credulous death

   • 1759, William Robertson, “Book I”, in The History of Scotland, during the Reigns of Queen Mary and of King James VI, till His Accession to the Crown of England. […], volume I, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar […], →OCLC, page 4:

     In the beginning of the ſixteenth century, John Major and Hector Boethius publiſhed their hiſtories of Scotland, the former a ſuccinct and dry vvriter, the latter a copious and florid one, and both equally credulous.

   • 1834, William Swainson, A Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural History (Cabinet Cyclopedia), pages 8–9:

     The powerful mind of Aristotle, which led him to reject with disdain the credulous tales and fabulous stories of the age, can nowhere be traced in the writings of Pliny, whose works, on the contrary, abound in fables and in prodigies, at once manifesting that weakness of mind inseparable from credulity, or that disinclination to investigate truth, which is the sure mark of a secondary order of intellect.

   • 2020, David Spiegelhalter, “Should We Trust Algorithms?”, in Harvard Data Science Review, volume 2, number 1, →DOI, page 2:

     The media (and politicians) are replete with credulous stories about machine learning and AI, but these stories are often based on commercial claims.

Derived terms

• credulity
• credulosity
• credulously
• credulousness
• discredulous
• omnicredulous
• overcredulous
• ultracredulous
• uncredulous

Related terms

• incredulous
• noncredulous

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *ḱerd- (0 c, 139 e)

Translations

excessively ready to believe things

• Arabic: سَاذَج (ar) m (sāḏaj), سَرِيع التَّصْدِيق m (sarīʕ at-taṣdīq)
• Bulgarian: доверчи́в (bg) (doverčív), лекове́рен (bg) (lekovéren)
• Catalan: crèdul
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 輕信的 / 轻信的 (zh) (qīngxìn de)

• Cornish: hegol
• Czech: důvěřivý (cs), lehkověrný (cs)
• Dutch: lichtgelovig (nl)
• Esperanto: kredema
• Finnish: hyväuskoinen (fi), sinisilmäinen (fi)
• French: crédule (fr), naïf (fr)
• German: leichtgläubig (de)
• Greek: εύπιστος (el) m (éfpistos)
• Hungarian: hiszékeny (hu)
• Japanese: だまされやすい (damasareyasui)
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• Latin: crēdulus
• Macedonian: лековерен (lekoveren), лесноверен (lesnoveren)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: godtroende (no)

• Polish: łatwowierny (pl)
• Portuguese: crédulo (pt)
• Romanian: credul (ro)
• Russian: дове́рчивый (ru) (dovérčivyj), легкове́рный (ru) (lexkovérnyj)
• Swedish: lättrogen (sv), godtrogen (sv), lättlurad (sv)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: safdil (tr)
• Ukrainian: легковірний m (lehkovirnyj), довірливий m (dovirlyvyj)
• Vietnamese: cả tin (vi)

References

• “credulous”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC. (etymology)