knownothingness

English

Noun

knownothingness (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of know-nothingness
   • 1899, Caroline H. Pemberton, Stephen the Black, page 96:

     After six weeks' intermission it would reopen in July for four weeks more, and then another long gap would occur, during which the children would fall back into the common pit of knownothingness, from which they were dragged during the brief interval when learning was supposed to be flourishing among them.

   • 1907, Paul Carus, The Open Court - Volume 21, page 43:

     There will be doubting Thomases in any event ; but the writer, with seventy-five years of life behind him, cannot help feeling that he will soon be in a position to know the truth of the matter — or else to be lost in the depths of utter knownothingness.

   • 1917, The Story Tellers' Magazine - Volume 5, page 347:

     Lady Wren was so impressed with her husband's knowledge and her own knownothingness and the prettiness of the name, that she exclaimed : "We'll call our baby Spunglass."