Unwiser

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Exhibiting greater foolishness or impaired judgment compared to others
2. Characterized by a reduced level of wisdom in decision-making processes
3. Showing a lower degree of good judgment or insight than others

Etymology: "Unwiser" is the comparative of "unwise", so it means "more unwise" or "less wise". The base word "unwise" is formed from the prefix "un-", meaning "not", attached to "wise", and it reaches back to Old English "unwīs", which carried a wider range of senses than the modern word: alongside "unwise" and "foolish", it could mean "ignorant", "uninformed", or even "insane". Those older meanings show how close judgment and knowledge once were to one another, since a person who lacked information was seen as lacking sound sense. The word has close relatives across the Germanic languages. Dutch "onwijs", German "unweise", Danish "uvis", Swedish "ovis", and Icelandic "óvís" all share the same construction and meaning, which points to a common inheritance from the older Germanic stock rather than a later borrowing. English kept the pattern, adding the regular comparative ending to form "unwiser" when two people or actions are being compared.

Synonyms: foolish, less wise

Antonyms: wiser, sensible