unknown unknowns

[Jonathan Lighter]

I can't confirm that this GB snippet is from _Social Work Journal_,1950:

"We recognize that our field is full of unknowns, so many perhaps we
scarcely know where to start, but they tend to remain unknown
unknowns."

Apparently the term became more or less current in the '60s. The
earliest ex. confirmable ex. appears to be  _Senate Hearings before
the Committee on Appropriations: Department of Defense Appropriations,
H.R. 15090, 91st Congress First Session, Fiscal Year 1970_
(Washington, D.C.: USGPO, 1969) III, p. 126:

"We recognize the difficulty of estimating fixed price production
costs for total package procurement knowing at the time that
engineering development with all of its 'unknowns' and 'unknown
unknowns' may have a strong impact on contract cost."

But by 1969 the term was already being abbreviated to "unk-unk," as
Grant discovered some time ago:

http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/unk_unk/

JL

Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 10:57 AM, David Barnhart <dbarnhart at highlands.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       David Barnhart <dbarnhart at HIGHLANDS.COM>
> Subject:      unknown unknowns
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> JL wrote in part:
>
>
>
>>An "unknown unknown" is basically an unknown >that nobody's even thought of
> yet.
>
>
>
> Black holes were an unknown unknown once upon a time.
>
>
>
> What's more what's unknown to one group may not be so to another.
>
>
>
> DKB
>
>
>
> Barnhart at highlands.com
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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