unconsciousnessn.
/ˌʌnˈkɒnʃəsnəs/, /ˌʌŋˈkɒnʃəsnəs/, U.S. /ˌənˈkɑnʃəsnəs/ 1. The state or fact of not having knowledge or awareness of a fact or circumstance; lack of knowledge or awareness.
a. With of.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > absence of perception > [noun]
discognisancec1475
imperception1644
imperceptiveness1662
imperceptivitya1680
non-perception1692
unconsciousness1712
imperceptibility1781
incognizancea1856
impercipience1882
no-mind1934
no-thought1949
no-mindness1959
1712 R. Theed Sacred Biogr. 240 Unconsciousness of Misdemeanour gave an assured Air, and a graceful Freedom.
1781 S. Johnson Addison in Pref. Wks. Eng. Poets V. 23 The work did not suffer much by his unconsciousness of its commencement.
1837 H. Martineau Society in Amer. II. 336 In a society where things like these are said and done..there is a prevalent unconsciousness of the existing wrong.
1870 J. H. Newman Ess. Gram. Assent ii. vi. 181 Our unconsciousness of those innumerable acts of assent, which we are incessantly making.
1913 J. Fox Heart of Hills xiv. 137 Their utter unconsciousness of any social difference between the lords and ladies..and poor people.
1946 Boys' Life Sept. 11/1 The separation from Melanie was rendered the more painful to him by Melanie's apparent unconsciousness of his existence.
2001 P. Shabad Despair & Return of Hope (2005) iii. 62 Implicit in this reliance on the receptivity and protection of others is an unconsciousness of impending threat.
b. Without construction. Also: unselfconsciousness.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > virtue > morally elevated quality > unselfishness > [noun] > lack of thought for self
self-forgetfulness1635
self-deadness1647
unconsciousness1738
unselfconsciousness1838
self-lossa1857
1738 S. Chandler Necessary & Immutable Difference between moral Good & Evil 12 Immensity and Limitedness, Intelligence and Unconsciousness, Power and Weakness, are not arbitrary, and owing merely to the Will of God.
1788 F. Burney Court Jrnls. & Lett. (2014) IV. 366 He was himself all ease, & sprightly unconsciousness.
1828 E. Bulwer-Lytton Pelham III. xx. 338 It was Dawson who shut the door, through utter unconsciousness.
1882 F. W. Farrar Early Days Christianity I. 264 Josephus..falsifies and colours... Philo on the other hand wrote with far greater unconsciousness.
1948 tr. Mao Zedong in A. L. Strong Tomorrow's China xii. 128 What is the strength of the imperialists? It lies only in the unconsciousness of the people.
2005 T. D. Zlatic in P. Messant & M. J. Budd Compan. M. Twain xiv. 225 Her unconsciousness and artless eloquence could not survive a reading lesson.
2. The state of being unconscious (unconscious adj. 5); loss of consciousness.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > physical sensibility > physical insensibility > unconsciousness > [noun]
insensibility?1510
senselessness1577
death1596
ecstasy1598
ecstasis1621
unconsciousness1732
insentience1862
1732 I. Watts Ess. Separate State Souls iv. 83 That Period or Interval is not a State of Sleep, i.e. utter Unconsciousness and Unactivity.
1786 J. Aitken Princ. Midwifery (ed. 3) vii. 61 Hysteria..is a convulsion..attended..not seldom with unconsciousness.
1849 J. A. Froude Nemesis of Faith 223 When he came he found her in a state of almost unconsciousness.
1890 Retrospect Med. 102 160 A longer or shorter period of continued unconsciousness, without convulsion.
1927 Daily Express 24 Mar. 3/6 The fluid in the blood will cause temporary unconsciousness.
2005 B. Davies Spycraft Man. 159/2 His body can only take so much pain before it automatically actives the ‘off’ switch and he falls into unconsciousness.
3. Chiefly Philosophy. Lack of consciousness (consciousness n. 2a).
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > absence of life or consciousness > [noun]
unvitalness1661
non-life1734
unconsciousness1759
1759 S. Johnson Prince of Abissinia II. xlvii. 156 All the notices of sense and investigations of science concur to prove the unconsciousness of matter.
1833 T. Chalmers On Power, Wisdom, & Goodness of God II. vii. 173 When we behold the working of a complex inanimate machine,..we infer, from the unconsciousness of all its parts, that there must have been a planning and a presiding wisdom in the construction of it.
1872 W. Graham Idealism i. 23 At one time Thought in Nature was trembling in the balance between the unconsciousness of the plant, and the first faint consciousness of animal.
1950 M. Turnell tr. J.-P. Sartre Baudelaire (new ed.) 79 Baudelaire would never for a moment have tolerated in this being..the passiveness and unconsciousness of a utensil.
1971 A. B. Ulanov Feminine in Jungian Psychol. & in Christian Theol. xii. 264 The masculine initiates the emergence of consciousness from primary unconsciousness.
2008 M. T. Ahmad Absolute Justice, Kindness & Kinship i. 16 Intuition seems to be placed halfway between unconsciousness and the full consciousness reached at the stage of man.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1712