Etymology

unwitting

U1N1W4I1T1T1I1N1G2

Today it means: Unaware or uninformed; oblivious. Full definition →

Middle English unwittinge ← Old English unwitende ← Proto-Germanic *unwitandz
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*unwitandz“not knowing”
  2. Old English · inherited fromunwitende“unwitting; not knowing; unaware; unconscious”
  3. Middle English · inherited fromunwittinge
  4. English todayunwitting

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.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.