sb. and a. [f. KNOW v. + NOTHING; cf. DO-NOTHING.]
A. sb. 1. a. One who knows nothing, a very ignorant person, an ignoramus. b. One who holds that nothing can be known, an agnostic.
1839. J. Rogers, Antipopopr., 140. Knownothing appears a desirable word to signify one very ignorant.
1871. R. H. Hutton, Ess. (1877), I. 24. The know-nothings really feel towards God as if they knew something of Him.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), II. 443. Socrates is represented in the character of a know-nothing.
2. A member of a political party in the United States, called also the American party, prominent during the years 1853–6; so named because, having been originally organized as a secret society, its members, to preserve this character, professed to outsiders complete ignorance regarding it.
The chief principle of the party was that none but native citizens should be permitted to share in the government. It disappeared about 1859.
1854. Richmond Dispatch, 10 April, 2/2. Hard Shells and Soft Shells…; the Know Nothings—eight parties and factions—will do their best to puzzle the calculations of the shrewdest politicians.
1856. Olmsted, Slave States, 15. Washington is, at this time, governed by the Know Nothings.
1878. G. F. Hoar, in N. Amer. Rev., CXXVI. 22. In the campaign of 1855 … the Know-nothings carried the State again by a large majority.
1884. T. W. Barnes, Mem. Thurlow Weed, 224 (Cent.). If a member of the order was asked about its practices or purposes, he answered that he knew nothing about them, and ‘Americans,’ for that reason, soon came to be called ‘Know Nothings.’
B. attrib. or adj.
1. a. That knows nothing; grossly ignorant. b. That holds that nothing can be known; agnostic.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, s.v., A poor know-nothing creature!
1837. Marryat, Dog-fiend, xx. I’m … a know-nothing ninny.
1858. Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alt., I. xxx. 116. The know-nothing or deceptive government at home.
1860. Emerson, Cond. Life, vi. (1861), 121. Here are know-nothing religions, or churches that proscribe intellect.
1897. Dublin Rev., April, 334. A rationalistic and know-nothing philosophy.
2. Of or pertaining to the American Know-nothings: see A. 2.
1856. Olmsted, Slave States, 172. The Richmond Whig—the leading Know-nothing newspaper in the Southern States.
1875. C. F. Adams, Jr. in N. Amer. Rev., CXX. 394. The great Know-Nothing movement.
1885. Lalor & Mason, trans. Von Holst’s Const. Hist. U. S., V. 116. One-half of the Know Nothing programme was unacceptable to the south.
