unwisdom

Meaning

1. (uncountable) Lack of wisdom; unwise action or conduct; folly, foolishness.
2. (countable, uncountable) An instance of a lack of wisdom; a foolish act.
3. (countable, rare, uncountable) A foolish or unwise being or force.

Opposite of

wisdom, folly, foolhardiness, foolishness, imprudence, stupidity, unwisdom

Synonyms

buffoonery

imprudence

clottishness

Translations

Tölpelhaftigkeit

Torheit

imprudence

sottise

imprudenza

onverstand

bobeira

aptallık

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ʌnˈwɪzdəm/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: unwisdom

Inherited from Old English: unwīsdōm

In summary

PIE word
*né
From Middle English unwisdom (“lack of wisdom, foolishness; an instance of this”), from Old English unwīsdōm, from un- (prefix denoting absence or negation of something) + wīsdōm (“wisdom”) (from Proto-Germanic *wīsadōmaz (“wise judgment, wisdom”), from *wīsaz (“knowledgeable, wise”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to know; to see”)) + *-dōmaz (suffix forming nouns denoting the condition or state of [the suffixed word]) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to do; to place, put”))). The word was apparently obsolete in the 18th century, but was revived from the 19th century and possibly popularized by its use in the works of the Scottish author and philosopher Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881): see the quotations. By surface analysis, un- (prefix denoting a lack of something) + wisdom.