unfamiliarity

English

Etymology

From un- +‎ familiarity.[1]

Noun

unfamiliarity (countable and uncountable, plural unfamiliarities)

  1. Lack of familiarity; ignorance or inexperience.
    Due to my unfamiliarity with the library's catalog system, it took several hours to find the book.
    • 1954, Troy Nesbit [pseudonym; Franklin Folsom], “Sacking Out”, in Sand Dune Pony (Wilderness Mysteries; 1), Racine, Wis.: Whitman Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 145:
      He let Sandy stand for a minute and then took the saddle off. Several more of these saddlings and unsaddlings followed. Then finally the saddle was cinched. Again Sandy repeated his pattern of calming down after the first unfamiliarity of a new experience had worn off. [] Before long Sandy accepted the saddle as if he’d been born with one on his back.
    • 1989 January, Werner Winter, “On a new claim concerning substratum influence upon Tocharian”, in Central Asiatic Journal[1], volume 33, number 1/2, Harrassowitz Verlag, →ISSN, page 128:
      Such insights can, however, not be expected from a state of near-total unfamiliarity with what has been going on in a field: innocence may be a good thing, ignorance certainly is not.

Translations

References

  1. ^ unfamiliarity, n.”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.