Frugal Café Superb Word of the Day: Nescience
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on April 7, 2009
Word of the Day: nescience
nescience NESH-uhn(t)s; NESH-ee-uhn(t)s, noun:
Lack of knowledge or awareness; ignorance.
The ancients understood that too much knowledge could actually impede human functioning — this at a time when the encroachments on global nescience were comparatively few.
– Cullen Murphy, “DNA Fatigue,” The Atlantic, November 1997.The notion has taken hold that every barometric fluctuation must demonstrate climate change. This anecdotal case for global warming is mostly nonsense, driven by nescience of a basic point, from statistics and probability, that the weather is always weird somewhere.
– Gregg Easterbrook, “Warming Up,” The New Republic, November 8, 1999.Talk aside, we have boots on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in regard to Operation Iraqi Freedom, Obama’s abject nescience is readily apparent.
– Mark Alexander, “Obama, the national security neophyte,” EnterStageRight.com, July 14, 2008.
Nescience is from Latin nescire, “not to know,” from ne-, “not” + scire, “to know.” It is related to science. Nescient is the adjective form.
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