Unwist

ppl. a. Obs. or arch. [UN-¹ 8 b.]

  † 1.  Unknown to one; without it being known.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Troylus, II. 1294. Hire entent … Was for to loue hym vnwist, if she myghte.

1382.  Wyclif, Gen. xxxv. 22. Ruben ȝede, and slepte with Bala, the secundarye wijf of his fader, that to hym was not vnwist.

1420–2.  Lydg., Thebes, I. 494. And vttrely remembre, ȝif the lyst, Thy byrth and blood ar bothe two vnwist.

c. 1500.  Lancelot, 219. How he fra that stede In sacret wyss wnwyst away was tak.

a. 1547.  Surrey, Æneis, IV. 397. Unfaithfull wight! to cover such a fault Coldest thou hope unwist to leve my land?

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., III. ii. 26. Of hurt vnwist most daunger doth redound. Ibid., ix. 21. Then of them all she plainly was espyde To be a woman wight, vnwist to bee, The fairest woman wight, that euer eye did see.

  † b.  Const. by, of; to, unto (or with dat.). Obs.

  In (a) freq. in the 16th c. in the archaic phrase ‘unwist of any wight.’

  (a)  c. 1385.  Chaucer, L. G. W., 1653, Hypsipyle. But on-wist of hire fadyr is she gon To Tessaly.

c. 1500.  Lancelot, 1139. Prevaly, unwist of any wicht.

1587.  Turberv., Trag. T. (1837), 153. Unwist of any wight, The murther was unseene.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., V. i. 9. It was kept in store in Ioues eternall house, vnwist of wight.

1848.  Bailey, Festus (ed. 3), 200. There is a secret sign whereby the soul Feels certainty of safety…, public to the universe,… And yet unwist of by a single world.

  (b)  c. 1412–20.  Lydg., Chron. Troy, I. 3585. Þat sche with hym schal in-to Grece wende…, Vnwist hir fader & euery other wyȝt. Ibid. (1420–2), Thebes, III. 4081. To hym the tyme vnknowen and vnwist.

1476.  Paston Lett., III. 153. I did it nott onwyst to hyr cowncell.

c. 1500.  Lancelot, 658. For to your folk this mater is wnwist.

1596.  Spenser, F. Q., IV. iv. 27. The shield and armes … Which Triamond had worne,… to his friend vnwist.

  † 2.  Lacking knowledge (of something); unknowing; not knowing how. Obs.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Troylus, II. 1400. Now quod Pandare er owres twyes twelue, He shal þe ese vnwyst of it hym selue.

a. 1547.  Surrey, Æneid, IV. 91. The shepheard smiteth at [the hind] unwares, And leaves unwist in her the thirling head.

1596.  Spenser, F. Q., V. i. 22. When he wak’…, He found him selfe, vnwist, so ill bestad, That lim he could not wag.

  3.  arch. Not known or recognized; strange.

1757.  W. Thompson, Poems, Nativity, xvi. Three Seers unwist the Captain-Glory led, Of awful Semblance.

1836.  Mrs. Browning, Poet’s Vow, II. xxi. Still between the sound and me, White creatures like a mist Did interfloat confusedly,—Mysterious shapes unwist!