| 释义 |
▪ I. unˈknowing, vbl. n.
[un-1 13.]
Ignorance. Revived in mod. use, esp. in phr. cloud of unknowing (after quot. a 1400).
1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 194 In myrknes of unknawyng þai gang. Ibid. 5741 Ne mene þou noght Of my freyle, unknawynges of thoght. c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. I. 159 So Nichodeme..for þis unknowinge..axide þis questioun. a1400(title) Þe clowde of vnknowyng. c1449Pecock Repr. i. xvi. 89 The vnhauyng and the vnknowing of this..consideracioun. c1450Lovelich Grail lii. 775 That I haue don be vnknowenge, Of forȝevenesse I preye ȝow. 1556Olde Antichrist 127 b, What other thing shal we cal this, but the most grosse unknowing of God? 1629A. Baker Commentary on Cloud (1924) ii. iii. 355 This cloud of unknowing..is but the self-same knowledge and sight of God which I and others do usually term the light, sight and knowledge that we have by our faith. 1911E. Underhill Mysticism ii. vii. 415 Reason finds itself, in a very actual sense, ‘in the dark’—immersed in the Cloud of Unknowing. 1939T. S. Eliot Family Reunion ii. ii. 110 Accident is design And design is accident In a cloud of unknowing. 1957Oxf. Dict. Christian Church 402/2 This [progressive deification of man] is to be obtained by a process of ‘unknowing’, in which the soul leaves behind the perceptions of the senses as well as the reasoning of the intellect. 1976H. Montefiore in Christian Believing 154 Even in granting as much as this to doctrine and dogma, I have to enter into the cloud of unknowing and assert the Church's apophatic tradition. 1984Daily Tel. 9 Feb. 16/5 This is one of those incidents which cloud the mind with mystery, forming, as we brood on it, a positive cloud of unknowing. 1984Sunday Tel. 8 July 18/4 Ideally, the fearful void of unknowing should be filled by the ballast of faith.
▪ II. unˈknowing, ppl. a.
[un-1 10, 5 d.]
1. Not knowing; not possessed of knowledge; uninformed, ignorant.
c1315Shoreham v. 148 Al one-knowynge þaȝ hy were, Hy makede ioye. 1386Rolls of Parlt. III. 225/2 Owre lyge Lordes comaundement to symple and unknouuing men. 1435Misyn Fire of Love 48 Bot þies ar vnknawand, for vertew of contemplatife þai knaw not. 1538G. Browne in Ware Hist. Coll. (1681) 3 The People of this Nation be zealous, yet blind and unknowing. 1612–3C. Brooke Elegy Poems (1872) 175 Those baser mindes, vnknowing, sensuall, rude. 1649Bp. Hall Cases Consc. vi. (1654) 45 The matter may be intricated by passing through many perhaps unknowing hands. 1725Pope Odyss. xx. 56 Man on frail unknowing man relies. 1760–72H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) IV. 27 My..child..is unexperienced in the world, quite unknowing and unknown. 1845Hirst Com. Mammoth, etc. 89 Winds that pilfer from unknowing flowers Their balmy breaths. 1871H. Macmillan True Vine vi. 249 It..does what it does in simple, perfect, unknowing dependence upon the will of God.
absol.1718J. Chamberlayne Nieuwentijdt's Relig. Philos. p. xx, [They] pass amongst the Unknowing for great Mathematicians. 1833Disraeli Cont. Fleming i. i, Our instructors are the unknowing and the dead. 1876Nature 2 Nov. 17/1 Undated..works..may be palmed off on the unknowing as the genuine product of the current year.
2. Without knowledge, ignorant, of something.
In frequent use from c 1700.
a1300Cursor M. 28313 O godds godes..haue i ben vnknauand. c140026 Pol. Poems 149 All that lyuen..Shall dye, vnknowyng of her day. a1450Knt. de la Tour (1868) 159 That is gret pite..to be vncunnynge and vnknowynge of hym selff. 1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 16 The residue wer vnknowyng of this thyng. 1691Wood Ath. Oxon. I. 587 [He was] simple, and unknowing of matters of State. 1740Richardson Pamela II. 270 She had found out a Match for me,..and had..brought me into the Lady's Company, unknowing of her Design. 1844[see 2 c]. 1869Freeman Norm. Conq. III. xii. 242 He laid his hand on the chest, while still unknowing of all that was in it.
b. With direct object.
1382Wyclif Gal. iv. 8 Ȝe, vnknowynge God, seruyden to hem that weren not goddis. 1460J. Capgrave Chron. 110 Sche went onknowyng hir tyme fro Seynt Petirs onto Lateran. c1500Melusine v. 27 He..rode apas vnknowing the way. 1760–2Goldsm. Cit. W. xxii, Mankind wanders, unknowing his way, from morning till evening. 1830Tennyson Grasshopper i. 16 Unknowing fear, Undreading loss, A gallant cavalier. 1847T. D'Arcy McGee Art MacMurrogh p. x, When, unknowing facts, they [sc. historians] lay down suppositions in their place.
c. With objective clause.
c1425St. Elizabeth in Anglia VIII. 147 Not vnknowynge þat oure lorde couerde þe naked of oure firste fader and moder after hir falle. c1465Eng. Chron. (Camden, 1856) 62 Unknowyng the said peple wherfore it was. 1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 182 b, Thou art not unknowyng that we are now conquerours. 1697Dryden æneis vi. 236 æneas went Sad from the cave,..Unknowing whom the sacred Sibyl meant. 1748Richardson Clarissa (1811) III. i. 2 They were all working for me,..unknowing that they did so. 1820Scott Monast. xxv, Driven by calamity, and unknowing where my course is bound. 1844Kinglake Eothen xii, Unknowing of all geography, unknowing where he was, or whither he might go.
d. With inf. (alone or preceded by how, etc.).
1666Dryden Ann. Mirab. xcvi, The Kingly beast..slowly moves, unknowing to give place. 1697― Virg. Georg. iv. 126 Unknowing how to fly, And obstinately bent to win or dye. 1700― Wife of Bath's T. 100 Lest surpriz'd, unknowing what to say, Thou damn thy self. 1746Francis tr. Horace, Art of Poetry 51 In one grand Whole unknowing to unite Those different Parts. 1771Goldsm. Hist. Eng. II. 204 Unknowing whether to ascribe their misfortunes to..sorcery, or to a celestial influence. 1801Southey Thalaba v. 170 Unknowing whitherward to bend his way, He stood. 1812J. Henry Camp. agst. Quebec 46 The huge animal..seemed unknowing which way to run.
†3. In absolute construction. Obs.
1451Paston Lett. I. 198 He thought that ye and James Gresham had do it un malyce,..your moders unknowyng. 1483Vulgaria abs Terentio 20 He hyde nott fro me that..odyr doo, vnknowynge theire faders. c1500Melusine xxiv. 171 They came & lodged them a leghe nygh to the Calyphes oost, vnknowyng the paynemes of it.
4. As quasi-adv. = unknowingly adv.
1392Wyclif Acts xvii. 23 Therfore which thing ȝe vnknowynge worschipen, this thing I schewe to ȝou. 1470–85Malory Arthur x. lxxix. 554 There syr Tristram vnknowyng smote doune kyng Arthur. 1721Amherst Terræ Fil. (1726) 101 See..what mischiefs ye might do unknowing. 1743Francis tr. Hor., Odes v. iii. 6 Have I swallow'd the gore of a viper unknowing? 1852Kingsley Andromeda 250 From afar, unknowing, I marked thee.
5. Unknown to (a person). Chiefly in absolute const., = without the knowledge of. Obs. exc. dial.
c1400Destr. Troy 11318, I..neuer comynd in þis case vnknowing to you. 1462Paston Lett. II. 119 It is not on knowyng to you that [etc.]. 1513Bradshaw St. Werburge i. 2677 A seruaunt..pryuely hydde it,..Vnknowynge to Werburge. 1577Grange Golden Aphrod. I iv b, He..sodenly departed (vnknowing to the Ladies). 1617Collins Def. Bp. Ely (1628) 302 When he praied for his children, vnknowing to them. 1643E. Symmons Loyal Subjects Belief Ep. Ded., Unknowing, I beleeve, to them in particular, some others did intend [etc.]. 1886–91in Somerset and Devon glossaries.
Hence unˈknowingness.
1493Festivall 23 b/1 Vnknowyngnesse shalle not exscuse you at y⊇ day of dome. 1872H. Bushnell Serm. Living Subj. 211 The unknowingness, the innocence, the sweet simplicity of childhood. |