unknowing

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English un-

English know

English -ing

English knowing

English unknowing

From un- + knowing.

Adjective

unknowing (comparative more unknowing, superlative most unknowing)

1. Without knowing; ignorant.
2. (obsolete) Unknown, unbeknownst (to someone).
   • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Luke:

     And when they had fulfilled the dayes, as they returned home, the chylde Jesus boode styll in hierusalem, vnknowinge to his father and mother.

Derived terms

• unknowingly
• unknowingness

Translations

without knowing

• Arabic: جَاهِل (jāhil)
• Dutch: onwetend (nl)
• Esperanto: ^{(please verify)} nekonanta
• Finnish: tietämätön (fi), epätietoinen (fi)
• Gothic: 𐌿𐌽𐌺𐌿𐌽𐌽𐌰𐌽𐌳𐍃 (unkunnands), 𐌿𐌽𐍅𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽𐌳𐍃 (unwitands)
• Macedonian: не́свесен (nésvesen)
• Plautdietsch: onweetent
• Polish: bezwiedny (pl)

Noun

unknowing (plural unknowings)

1. Absence of knowledge; ignorance of something.
   • 2011, E. L. McCallum, Mikko Tuhkanen, Queer Times, Queer Becomings, page 320:

     Only later in the performance do we get that diegetically earlier moment, the moment when still earlier questions, fears, knowings, and unknowings congeal into the medical diagnosis of “positive.”