incaution

English

Etymology

in- +‎ caution

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈkɔːʃən/

Noun

incaution (usually uncountable, plural incautions)

1. A lack of caution.
   • 1720, Alexander Pope, translating Homer, The Iliad, Book 23, Adamant 2000, p. 473:

     Lest through incaution failing, thou mayst be / A joy to others, a reproach to me.

   • 1865, William Howitt, The History of Discovery in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand:

     Little did the members of the expedition, little did the cheering spectators on that exciting day divine the strange neglects, the strange incautions, and the consequent disasters and deaths […]

   • 2008 January 24, “The Maverick Insider”, in The Guardian:

     It always felt as though Hain's career, which began so powerfully with his youthful campaigning against apartheid, was going to come unstuck, but through political incaution, not financial incompetence.

Related terms

• incautious