unbeliever

English

Etymology

From un- +‎ believer, perhaps a corruption of earlier wanbeliever (unbeliever).

Pronunciation

  • Audio (Mid-Atlantic US):(file)

Noun

unbeliever (plural unbelievers)

  1. One who does not believe, particularly in a deity (used by believers to describe people who do not believe in the same deity or deities as themselves).
    • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
      `Well, I suppose that we must try it,' I said; and the others assented in their various ways - Leo, as though it were the best joke in the world; Job, in respectful disgust; and Mahomed, with an invocation to the Prophet, and a comprehensive curse upon all unbelievers and their ways of thought and travel.
    • 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 86:
      I tried to persuade some of the men to come and save you, but they would not do it, saying: ‘Let the unbelievers kill one another if they wish. It is none of our affair, and if we go and interfere with Ali-ben-Ahmed’s plans we shall only stir up a fight with our own people.’
    • 1979 August 18, Maida Tilchen, “The Diversity of Women's Music”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 5, page 9:
      One of the emcees, going for a cheap laugh had said "classical musicians, we all know what they're like," and I heard several voices from the audience reply, "Oh yeah, what are they like?" But the classical concert certainly convinced the unbelievers.

Synonyms

Translations