nonfanatic

English

Alternative forms

• non-fanatic

Etymology

From non- +‎ fanatic.

Adjective

nonfanatic (comparative more nonfanatic, superlative most nonfanatic)

1. Not fanatic; reasonable or moderate.
   • 1886, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, page 168:

     In general, we observe the Catholic Dignitaries, and the zealous or fanatic of that creed, especially the Jesuits, are apt to be against him : as for the nonfanatic, they expect better government, secular advantage ; these latter weigh doubtfully, and with less weight whichever way.

   • 1966, Maine. Governor's Task Force on Corrections, In the Public Interest:

     However we might reach the conclusion, most of us would agree that both fanatic and nonfanatic Nazis are morally depraved.

   • 1997, Paul R. Gross, Norman Levitt, Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science, →ISBN:

     We have tacitly assumed that there is in sober fact no real contradiction between science as such and the social and political goals (in their nonfanatic forms) of the various oppositional movements we have studied.

   • 2009, Douglas Little, American Orientalism: The United States and the Middle East since 1945, →ISBN:

     By the summer of 1980, however, nonfanatic, pro-Western moderates were in short supply in the Persian Gulf.

Noun

nonfanatic (plural nonfanatics)

1. One who is not a fanatic.
   • 1964, The Modern Schoolman - Volume 41, page 176:

     He does not precisely indicate how one distinguishes the fanatic from the nonfanatic.

   • 1970, Miles Copeland, The game of nations: the amorality of power politics, page 204:

     ...but he is an important weapon in the hands of the determined nonfanatic — one who intends to live for the cause, in other words.

   • 2013, Tadashi Ono, Harris Salat, Japanese Soul Cooking, →ISBN:

     As every udon fanatic (and even nonfanatic) in Japan knows, Takamatsu sits smack in the center of the Sanuki universe.

   • 2014, Ronald Dmitri Milo, Immorality, →ISBN, page 72:

     If the escape-route of adopting the indifferent-amoral position is not really open to the nonfanatic, then what about the silent-amoral position?