unwitting

Etymology

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.

adj

  1. unaware or uninformed; oblivious
    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. 2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Location of Experiment
  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.
    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. 1963 May, “News and Comment: Derailment at Bethnal Green”, in Modern Railways, page 299

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