Obliviousness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A state of being unaware of or unconscious to something happening around you or affecting you
2. A condition that reflects a failure to notice or understand events occurring in one's environment or the effects those events might have on oneself
3. A lack of awareness regarding one's surroundings or the implications of actions and events occurring in the environment

Etymology: "Obliviousness" is a straightforward formation: the adjective "oblivious" with the suffix "-ness" added. That suffix comes from Old English "-nes", a common device for turning adjectives into nouns of state or quality, so "obliviousness" names the condition of being oblivious. The adjective is the more interesting half. "Oblivious" comes from Latin "oblivisci", meaning "to forget", and the sense it carries is one of forgetting or being unmindful of something. In English it has long meant something close to "forgetful" or "not conscious of," and over time it took on the more everyday sense of being unaware of one's surroundings or of how one's actions affect others, which is the sense the noun now expresses.

Synonyms: unawareness, ignorance

Antonyms: awareness, consciousness