unidentifiedness

From unidentified +‎ -ness.

unidentifiedness (uncountable)

1. The quality of being unidentified.

   Antonym: identifiedness

   • 1991 September 11, Michael W. Haney, James J. Levy, Ravindra A. Athale, “Nestor Learning System”, in Analog Optical Neural Nets: A Noise Sensitivity Analysis (AD-A242 920; BDM/MCL-91-0364-TR), McLean, Va.: BDM International, →OCLC, Appendix: Program Listings, page 113:

     Classification and testing of unidentifiedness

   • 1997 August 6, Dorit Abusch, Mats Rooth, “Discourse Referent Predication”, in Epistemic NP Modifiers, →OCLC, page 9:

     In this case, the relative clause who is not identified is predicted to be false, matching our intuitions. Summing up the analysis, predications of identifiedness and unidentifiedness are analyzed as relations between a discourse referent and the output file introduced by the description of content.

   • 2000, Lisa Heinzerling, “The Rights of Statistical People”, in Robin West, editor, Rights (The International Library of Essays in Law & Legal Theory: Second Series), Aldershot, Hampshire; Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate/Dartmouth, published 2001, →ISBN, part III (Aspirational Rights: Possibilities and Histories), page 622:

     When Tylenol capsules were contaminated with cyanide and placed on the market in the fall of 1982, no one knew which capsules contained the cyanide. Accordingly, no one knew who would be poisoned if no preventive measures were taken. This unidentifiedness did not soften the response that followed the first poisonings. Indeed, it arguably magnified it, as unidentifiedness is a close cousin. of the awful randomness—associated with terrorists and criminal maniacs—that many people uniquely fear.