Word of the Day

Thursday September 09, 2010

unwitting [uhn-WIT-ing]

adjective

The people who act as seed shareholders are very compliant, or very corrupt. Some are unwitting dupes, others are willing co-conspirators.

David Baines, "Surrey company shareholders accused of lying to investigators", The Vancouver Sun, Sep 2, 2010
Zachary Gosling, 18, will begin majoring in business at Drexel University next month but is already quite the businessman. In first grade, he sold rocks from his driveway to unwitting classmates, claiming that he had spiffed them up in a "rock cleaner." At age 8, he opened his first Scottrade account.

Susan Snyder, "Rewards of rebuilding; A go-getter goes to college", Philadelphia Inquirer, Aug 30, 2010,
And it has been proved many times that a man with a certain interest will make many unwitting errors to shape an observation or experiment in favor of his interest. No, we could have none of that here.

Harry Harrison (1925 - ) An American science fiction author. The K-Factor

Origin of the Word

Unwitting, approximately 700, derives from Old English unwitende, from un- "not" + witting.