unwitting

From Middle English unwittinge, unwitand, from Old English unwitende (“unwitting; not knowing; unaware; unconscious”), from Proto-Germanic *unwitandz (“not knowing”), equivalent to un- +‎ witting. Cognate with West Frisian ûnwittend, Dutch onwetend, German Low German unwetend, German unwissend and unwissentlich, Icelandic óvitandi.

• Rhymes: -ɪtɪŋ

unwitting (comparative more unwitting, superlative most unwitting)

1. unaware or uninformed; oblivious

   Synonyms: clueless, ignorant; see also Thesaurus:ignorant

   Antonyms: aware, cognizant

   • 2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Location of Experiment:

     We've located the perfect site for experimentation on live test subjects. Kadara's "badlands" offer unsupervised access to unwitting test subjects free from any lawful or ethical constraints.

2. unintentional
   • (transl.) 4th century BC, Plato, Sophist, 230a

     Some people, apparently, have thought about it and reached the conclusion that every case of being misinformed is unwitting.

   • 1963 May, “News and Comment: Derailment at Bethnal Green”, in Modern Railways, page 299:

     Persistent but unwitting excessive speed over a sharply curved turnout forming part of a double junction, which resulted in slight track distortion, was the primary cause of the derailment of an electric m.u. at Bethnal Green on Saturday, June 17 last.

   Synonyms: inadvertent, unintended; see also Thesaurus:unintentional

   Antonym: deliberate

• unwittingly
• unwittingness

• unweeting
• witting

• “unwitting”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.