How is “ignorant” being used now?

helpfulperson · 21/01/2024 13:27

That use has been common in Scotland since I was a child (About 40 years). I've always assumed it was short for 'ignorant of the correct social rules'

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Melisande90 · 21/01/2024 13:42

I am from Northern Ireland where it is usually used to mean “rude” - although I’m aware of it in the context you say I would say “uneducated” rather than ignorant if I meant that, as most people here would take ignorant to mean rude.

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LaviniasBigBloomers · 21/01/2024 13:55

In Scotland it means someone who doesn't know how to behave in a given situation, often rudeness but not always.

For eg someone who has poor table manners is ignorant
Someone who ignores you in the street is also ignorant
Someone swearing inappropriately, for eg in hearing of a professional person is also ignorant

It's really about social mores, now I think about it. Rarely used for uneducated, although I suppose someone who doesn't know social mores may also be considered uneducated.

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Spicybeanburger · 21/01/2024 14:01

I don't like it used like this, but use it to mean rude or ignoring I think. In in the north east and have lived elsewhere. People here use it to mean rude or ignoring somone. More so than other places I've lived.

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DuploTrain · 21/01/2024 14:04

Yes people do use it to mean literally ignoring someone, or generally being rude.

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ColleenDonaghy · 21/01/2024 14:06

helpfulperson · 21/01/2024 13:27

That use has been common in Scotland since I was a child (About 40 years). I've always assumed it was short for 'ignorant of the correct social rules'

Yes, "ignorant of social rules" is how I interpret it. It's been around a long time.

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AllProperTeaIsTheft · 21/01/2024 14:13

I'm English and only use it to mean 'lacking in knowledge/education', but am aware that elsewhere in the British Isles it can mean 'rude' or 'ignoring'. That usage may well have spread.

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UtterlyUnimaginativeUsername · 21/01/2024 14:40

In my experience it's meant as more or less wilfully uncouth? Not just lacking knowledge of correct behaviour, but not caring.

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RubaiyatOfAnyone · 21/01/2024 16:47

I think i see the evolution of all the above meanings except “ignoring someone” - surely that’s just conflating two similar words?

Fwiw, i hadn’t come across these wider meanings until the last couple of years on MN, so they aren’t universal across the UK. Interesting though.

OP posts:

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ShowOfHands · 21/01/2024 16:57

I'm curious about the use of ambivalent. I rarely use it seen in the way I understand it.

Ignorant to me has only ever meant lacking in education.

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GreenClock · 21/01/2024 17:02

Ian Wright, the footballer turned pundit, was teased for saying something like, “he’s not ignorant. He just didn’t know”.

I take it to mean lacking knowledge. But IW clearly thinks it either means paying no heed, or being rude. As do some on here.

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OchonAgusOchonOh · 21/01/2024 17:08

It means rude or obnoxious in Ireland too. Someone particularly obnoxious would be referred to as pig ignorant.

If you meant uneducated, you would have to explain that you were using it in that context as the default meaning is obnoxious.

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OchonAgusOchonOh · 21/01/2024 17:11

RubaiyatOfAnyone · 21/01/2024 16:47

I think i see the evolution of all the above meanings except “ignoring someone” - surely that’s just conflating two similar words?

Fwiw, i hadn’t come across these wider meanings until the last couple of years on MN, so they aren’t universal across the UK. Interesting though.

I don't think it's the conflation of two similar words when used to mean ignoring, at least in ireland. It would be more pointing out how ignorant (obnoxious) the person was to ignore you.

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RecycleMePlease · 21/01/2024 17:32

Depends where you use it in a sentence for me me (southerner).

Might mean that they don't know something: 'ignorant of the fact that you can't buy booze before 10:30'. Someone can also be 'willfully ignorant' ie. refusing to educate themselves about whatever it is (eg. how to correctly make up a baby-bottle and refusing to listen to anyone who would tell them different to what they think.

If a person was just called 'ignorant' though, I would assume that they were boorish, obnoxious and probably proud of it.

I'm curious about the use of ambivalent. I rarely use it seen in the way I understand it.

Doesn't mind either way, could go either way, doesn't have strong feelings about whatever it is. But reading the definition, I seem to have that wrong, it's more that you have mixed feelings than that you don't mind.

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smokingcarriageonly · 21/01/2024 18:12

It was my grandmother's favourite insult. She was born just after WWI and her mother was Irish, I always assumed it had Irish origins.

She used it to mean a kind of shameless, willful boorishness. Now that I think about it it says so much about her, she was not well educated herself but cared a lot about dignity and good taste.

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ginasevern · 21/01/2024 18:22

I use it to mean lacking in education, ie ignorant of facts or general knowledge. I also use it when someone has been rude. For example, if someone I knew deliberately ignored me in the street I would say "ignorant sod" under my breath.

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HavfrueDenizKisi · 21/01/2024 18:29

London here. Only use it to describe someone who doesn't know anything/lacks education. I do not use it as a description of rude behaviour or ignoring someone/thing.

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FrangipaniBlue · 21/01/2024 22:13

Dictionary includes both definitions.

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moonshinepoursthroughmywindow · 04/05/2024 09:51

I grew up in the East Midlands and it was quite commonly used to mean "ignoring someone." Someone might shout out "Oi, Mandy!" and if they didn't get a reaction they'd follow up with "Oi, Mandy, you ignorant cow!" Or on one occasion I was trying to talk to someone and they said something like "I'll be with you in a minute, Jackie just asked me something and I don't want to be ignorant."

I'm wondering if using it to mean rude has something to do with mixing it up with the word "insolent."

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ASighMadeOfStone · 04/05/2024 13:02

The etymology of "ignorant" has always shown it having two related, but not identical meanings.

To not know, and to take no notice of.

late 14c., "lacking wisdom or knowledge; unaware," from Old French ignorant (14c.), from Latin ignorantem (nominative ignorans) "not knowing, ignorant," present participle of ignorare "not to know, to be unacquainted; mistake, misunderstand; take no notice of, pay no attention to,"

Colloquial use (derived from the second use above) ie calling someone ignorant because of their attitude/behaviour etc apparently documented by the 1800s.

So we've been using it a while.

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CarolinaInTheMorning · 04/05/2024 15:31

LaviniasBigBloomers · 21/01/2024 13:55

In Scotland it means someone who doesn't know how to behave in a given situation, often rudeness but not always.

For eg someone who has poor table manners is ignorant
Someone who ignores you in the street is also ignorant
Someone swearing inappropriately, for eg in hearing of a professional person is also ignorant

It's really about social mores, now I think about it. Rarely used for uneducated, although I suppose someone who doesn't know social mores may also be considered uneducated.

It's used this way in the Southern US as well; in fact, I think even more so than the "uneducated" meaning.

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How is “ignorant” being used now?