unconscious

Etymology

un- + conscious

adj

1. Not awake; having no awareness.
   After the anesthetist administered the general anesthetic the patient was unconscious.
2. (psychology) Without directed thought or awareness.
   My sudden fright was an unconscious response.
   It was intolerable, he felt, to sit and eat in presence of that silent figure partly turned away from him, jotting down the different amounts on a bit of paper, and absorbed in that occupation as if unconscious of his presence. 1884, Margaret Oliphant, The Wizard's Son
   Reshaping [of British Railways] was far from perfect. It was tainted by statistical overreach, the unconscious biases of its author, and by the political demands being placed upon the BRB by government. March 8 2023, Gareth Dennis, “The Reshaping of things to come...”, in RAIL, number 978, page 49
3. (sports) engaged in skilled performance without conscious control.
   Sam is unconscious, filling it, drilling it from every conceivable angle. Lem is awful and Cooper seems confused. Josh shoots too often. 1998, Charles Rosen, The Cockroach Basketball League, page 144
   "I was unconscious," the basketball player gushes. "It seemed like everything I threw up toward the basket went straight in." 1999, Joseph Leininger, Terry Whalin, Lessons from the Pit: A Successful Veteran of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, page 10
   Someone who has reeled off a string of baskets will say, "I was unconscious," as if he were following the Zen injunction to be mindful while suspending thought. 2002, Alexander Wolff, Big Game, Small World: A Basketball Adventure, page 292

noun

1. (psychology) That part of mind that is not consciously perceived.
   Because the unconscious is outside time, it can perceive transformations beyond the limits of the ego. 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 135