[f. UNWITTING ppl. a.]
† 1. Lack of knowledge; ignorance. Obs. rare.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter xxiv. 7. Giltes of mine youthe in thoghte And mine un-witandnesses [L. ignorantiæ] min noght.
1611. Florio, Inscibilita, ignorance, vnwittingnesse.
1668. J. Wilson, trans. Erasmus’ Praise of Folly (1913), 176. Nor does he cover their crime with any other excuse than that of unwittingnesse—because, saith he, ‘they know not what they do.’
2. Absence of realization; unconsciousness.
1873. Mrs. Whitney, Other Girls, xviii. ‘Why don’t we preach it ourselves,’ said Desire, with inimitable unwittingness.
1876. Meredith, Beauch. Career, II. iii. 44. A lovely melting image of her stole over him; all the warmer for her unwittingness in producing it.
