ignorant

Etymology

From Old French ignorant. Surface analysis: ignore + -ant.

adj

1. Unknowledgeable or uneducated; characterized by ignorance.
   The ignorant peasant, without fault, is greater than the philosopher with many; for what is genius or courage without an heart? 1766, Oliver Goldsmith, chapter 15, in The Vicar of Wakefield, volume I, London: F. Newbery, page 150
2. Not knowing (a fact or facts), unaware (of something).
   Eve. Somewhat forbids me, which I cannot name; For ignorant of guilt, I fear not shame: But some restraining thought, I know not why, Tells me, you long should beg, I long deny. 1677, John Dryden, The State of Innocence and Fall of Man, London: Henry Herringman, act II, page 14
   1851, Walt Whitman, “Art and Artists” in Emory Holloway (editor), The Uncollected Poetry and Prose of Walt Whitman, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1921, Volume 1, p. 242, […] perhaps it is sometimes the case that the greatest artists live and die, the world and themselves alike ignorant what they possess.
   That night he slept the sleep of happiness, blissfully ignorant that he had placed the letters in the wrong envelopes. 1921, John T. McCutcheon, The Restless Age, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, page 179
3. (slang) Ill-mannered, crude.
   His manner was at best off-hand, at worst totally ignorant.
4. (obsolete) unknown; undiscovered
   1845, Robert Browning, letter addressed to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, cited in Percy Lubbock, Elizabeth Barrett Browning in Her Letters, London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1906, Chapter 4, p. 106, […] as to you, your goodness and understanding will always see to the bottom of involuntary or ignorant faults—always help me to correct them.
5. Resulting from ignorance; foolish; silly.
   He had never felt a pain or a sorrow, and did not know what they were, in any really informing way. He had no knowledge of them except theoretically—that is to say, intellectually. And of course that is no good. One can never get any but a loose and ignorant notion of such things except by experience. 1916, Mark Twain, chapter 8, in Albert Paine, editor, The Mysterious Stranger, New York: Harper & Bros., page 112

noun

1. One who is ignorant.