beknownst

beknownst

English

Etymology

Probably a back-formation from unbeknownst.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɪˈnoʊnst/

Adverb

beknownst (not comparable)

1. (colloquial, followed by the preposition to) Known; In (someone's) awareness.
   • 1854: "A Great Mulrooney Story" by Sylvanus Urban, Godey's Lady Book

     Axin' yer pardin, Misther O'Brien, but 'tis well beknownst to a jintleman of your exthraordinady mintal an' quizzical fackilties that the consthruction of the words consthitutes the differ of langwidged, of which pothooks an' hangers is the ilimints.

   • 1887: "A Blue Grass Penelope" by Bret Harte

     The if he was n't hiding' here beknownst to you, he must have changed his mind agin and got away by the embarcadero.

   • 2003, K.S. McCoy, My Mind's Eye‎, →ISBN, page 37:

     Upon her 21 birthday as she had asked the gypsy came to her with her book of spells and on the rising of the night star she did take Angelique deep into the woods where beknownst to only them she performed a ritual so old and ancient that most of her own kind no longer knew it existed.

   • 2008, Miles Hawke, The Dragonnade‎, →ISBN, page 56:

     Then for reasons best beknownst to him, the batman took note of the woman's presence and then tried to shrug off the glamour o’ sea.

   • 2011, Edward F. Cassidy, Looking Back on Tomorrow: A Life Story‎, →ISBN, page 111:

     Little beknownst to either of them, they were being followed by a very clumsy, wet, and muddy-pawed mutt, the Cassidy hound.

Anagrams

• best-known