unpretended

English

Etymology

un- +‎ pretended

Adjective

unpretended (comparative more unpretended, superlative most unpretended)

1. Without pretense; sincere; honest.
   • 1960, Tsugio Ajisaka, Education by Dr. Obara, page 156:

     Children do not expect to be praized. They would never relax their effort for production. Theirs is a free and unpretended self-expression.

   • 1988, Barbara Brett, Sizzle, page 347:

     She looked up at Cliff, her face filled with unpretended pleasure.

   • 2009, Merienne Lynch, Knowing the Terror of the Lord, page 98:

     And she did this with a sincere, unpretended love.

2. Based in fact; genuine; actual.
   • 1643, Edward Bowles, John Squire, Henry Hare, Plaine English:

     First, is it likely that during this unpretended danger we should obtain a settlement of the power of the Kingddme, princip liy of the Ships, Forts and Armes in the hands of them who are knowne friends ofpublique safety or Liberty, taking it granted that we could finde them.

   • 1994, George Graham, G. Lynn Stephens, Philosophical Psychopathology, page 172:

     But it is not feigned on a tabula rasa, as if at random: rather, the declaration of immediate intention appears to be formed in the way a decision is formed, constrained by the (pretended) "fact” that there is the sound of footsteps from the basement, the (unpretended) fact that such a sound would now be unlikely if therre weren't an intruder in the basement, the (unpretended) awfulness of there being an intruder in the basement, and so forth.

   • 1998, Norrie Epstein, The Friendly Dickens:

     We shall go forth tonight by the heavy coach —like the dove of old, my dear Martin — and it will be a week before we again deposit our olive-branches in the passage. When I say 'olive-branches,' observed Mr. Pecksniff, in explanation, 'I mean our unpretended luggage.'

3. Without complication or embellishment; straightforward; simple and direct.
   • 1982, Harihar Singh, Jaina Temples of Western India, page 230:

     The front side of the porticoes is shaded by a double-curved eave-cornice of unpretended beauty.

   • 2013, Katharina M. Wilson, Paul Schlueter, June Schlueter, Women Writers of Great Britain and Europe: An Encyclopedia:

     Ilse Aichinger is a master of the “unpretended language.” Her works are marked by their unobtrusiveness and clarity.

   • 2015, Herbert Spencer, Essays on Education and Kindred Subjects:

     How pleasant the little unpretended gatherings of book-societies, and the like; or those purely accidental meetings of a few people well known to each other!.