uncircumcised

From Middle English uncircumcised, equivalent to un- +‎ circumcised. Subsidiary definitions are much influenced by traditions of the Abrahamic religions.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ʌnˈsɜːkəmsaɪzd/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ʌnˈsɝkəmsaɪzd/

uncircumcised (not comparable)

1. Not circumcised, intact.
   • 1986, Henrietta L. Moore, Space, Text and Gender, →ISBN:

     A child who is born to an uncircumcised girl is not allowed to live; as one old woman said, 'only women, not children can have children'

   • 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 30:

     In my tradition, an uncircumcised male cannot be heir to his father's wealth, cannot marry or officiate in tribal rituals.

   • 2000, Lawrence Balter, Parenthood in America: An Encyclopedia - Volume 1, →ISBN, page 129:

     Importantly, the NHSLS demonstrated no differences between uncircumcised and circumcised men in the risk of ever having had gonorrhea, syphilis, urethral infection with microorganisms other than gonorrhea, or genital herpes.

   • 2010, Gary R. Fleisher, Stephen Ludwig, Textbook of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, →ISBN, page 32:

     Surprisingly, few physicians know how to care for uncircumcised boys.

2. (by extension) Not Jewish or Muslim; gentile.
   • 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 42, lines 637–638:

     Under his ſpecial eie / Abſtemious I [Samson] grew up and thriv'd amain; / He led me on to mightieſt deeds / Above the nerve of mortal arm / Againſt the uncircumciſ'd, our enemies.

   • 1939, Katherine Jones translation of Sigmund Freud, Moses and Monotheism, Chapter II:

     Even to-day the Turk hurls abuse at the Christian by calling him "an uncircumcised dog."

   • 2011, Benedikt Eckhardt, Jewish Identity and Politics between the Maccabees and Bar Kokhba, →ISBN:

     This passage says that all goyim are uncircumcised and all the House of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart. Being uncircumcised means being non-Jewish and hostile.

   • 2011, Matthew Thiessen, Contesting Conversion, →ISBN:

     Whatever the basis upon which he distinguishes between Israelite and non-Israelite circumcision, Jeremiah can claim that Egypt, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and the Arabs are circumcised and yet foreskinned. The statement that these nations are uncircumcised cannot be dismissed as "hyperbolisch," as Friedrich Nötscher has claimed, but rather serves as a declaration that what they have done to their penises is distinct from what the Israelites have done to theirs. It is for this reason that the Egyptians, Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, and Arabs can be foreskinned despite their circumcision. Judah's allies belong to the same category as Babylon: that is, they belong among the uncircumcised.

   • 2014, Cornie Banman, Traditional Anti-Torah Church Doctrines: The Curses of Our Fathers, →ISBN:

     We can see in Isaiah 52:1 that the uncircumcised (Gentiles) were termed unclean by the same definition with which God termed swine to be unclean.

3. Spiritually impure; irreligious.
   • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts vij:[51], folio clxiiij, recto:

     Ye ſtiffenecked ãd of vncircumciſed hertes ãd eares: ye have allwayes reſiſted agaynſte the holy gooſt: as youre fathers did / ſo do ye.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ezekiel 44:7:

     In that ye have brought into my sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house, when ye offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant because of all your abominations.

   • 1624, John Donne, Sermon CXX: Preached at St. Dunstan's upon New Year's Day 1624:

     The Scripture speaks of uncircumcised hearts, and uncircumcised lips, and uncircumcised ears ; and our eyes in looking, and coveting, and our hands in reaching to that which is not ours, are as far uncircumcised as ears, or lips, or hearts : therefore we are to carry this circumcision all over; We must circumcise, says St. Bernard, in came, peccatum, the flesh, the body, the substance of the sin, in cute, operimentum, in the skin, all covers, and palliations, and disguises, and extenuations of the sin; and, in sanguine incentimm, in the blood all fomentations and provocations to that sin: the sin itself, the circumstances of the sin, the relapses to or towards that sin must be circumcised ...

   • 1698, Simon Patrick, A Commentary Upon the Third Book of Moses, Called Leviticus:

     Ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised. That is, as unclean, and therefore to be cast away as the Foreskin was.

   • 2011, Margaret Davis, Fear Not!: Is There Anything Too Hard for God?, →ISBN, page 268:

     But there are many people who hear the Word but are resistant to it and the Holy Spirit. They have uncircumcised ears defined by Jeremiah thusly: “To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? Their ears are closed so they cannot hear. The Word of the LORD is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it" (Jer. 6:10).

   • 2016, Peter Williams, Israel and the Covenants in New Testament Times, →ISBN:

     Three years it shall be as uncircumcised to you. It shall not be eaten. But in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, a praise to the Lord.

4. (obsolete) Closed in, so as to work imperfectly.
   • 1382–84, John Wycliffe, Exodus 6:12:

     Moises answeride bifore the Lord, Lo! the children of Israel here not me, and hou schal Farao here, moost sithen Y am vncircumcidid in lippis?

   • 1382–84, John Wycliffe, Jeremiah 6:10:

     To whom schal Y speke, and to whom schal Y seie witnessing, that he here? Lo! the eeris of hem ben vncircumcidid, and thei moun not here; lo! the word of the Lord is maad to hem in to dispit, and thei schulen not resseiue it.

   • 1530 January 27 (Gregorian calendar), W[illiam] T[yndale], transl., [The Pentateuch] (Tyndale Bible), Malborow [Marburg], Hesse: […] Hans Luft [actually Antwerp: Johan Hoochstraten], →OCLC, Exodus vj:[12], folios IX, verso – x, recto:

     And Moſes ſpake before the Lorde ſaynge: beholde, the childern of Iſraell herken not vnto me, how than ſhall Pharao heare me: ſeynge that I haue vncircumciſed lippes.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 6:12:

     And Moses spake before the Lord, saying, Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised lips?

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 6:10:

     To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the Lord is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

• (not circumcised): see also Thesaurus:uncircumcised.

• James A. H. Murray [et al.], editors (1884–1928), “Uncircumcised”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volumes X, Part 1 (Ti–U), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 84, column 3.