Uncomplicit

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Characterizing a state of not being involved or participating in wrongdoing or illicit activities
2. Describing an absence of complicity, especially in morally or legally questionable actions
3. Referring to a condition where one does not share in or support unethical actions or decisions

Etymology: "Uncomplicit" is formed by attaching the prefix "un-", meaning "not", to "complicit," the adjective that describes someone who is involved with others in a wrongdoing. The prefix is one of English's most productive, Old English in origin, and it has been freely attached to adjectives for centuries, so "uncomplicit" follows a familiar pattern. Its sense is simply the negation of its base: a person or institution that is not complicit in a questionable act, which in practice means it had no hand in it, neither acting alongside the wrongdoers nor quietly enabling them. The base word "complicit" itself comes from the Latin "complicare," meaning "to fold together" or "to entangle," which is also the source of "complicate." The idea of being folded or tangled up with someone else's act survives in the modern sense, where complicity means being woven into another party's wrongdoing. "Uncomplicit" therefore describes the state of having kept those threads untangled.

Synonyms: innocent, blameless

Antonyms: complicit