The notion of unknown comes from the Latin word ignōtus, which can be translated as "unknown" . It's about a adjective which is used to refer to who has not been discovered or is not known .
For example: “An unknown singer surprised with his voice in the pedestrian, captivating hundreds of people”, “The veteran soccer player will play for an unknown club of the second division of Armenia”, "The president chose an unknown economist as head of the Ministry of Finance".
Someone unknown, in this framework, It is not popular, famous or famous . The most of the people He does not know his name and could not recognize him when he saw him.
Many times an unknown individual for many is recognized for others. When the Argentine basketball player Manu Ginobili was selected by San Antonio Spurs in the draft of the NBA , for almost all Americans it was a unknown athlete . However, he already stood out in the field of Italian basketball and played in the selected of his country .
Ignoto can also be used to qualify a unpopulated place or of little popularity beyond their borders or limits: "For a mechanical problem we had to spend the night in an unknown place in Patagonia", “The actor decided to enjoy his vacations on an unknown island in the Caribbean”, “My son was sent to work at a branch of his company that is in an unknown country in Asia”.
A company and a Sports team They can also be unknown: "An unknown company in China surprised to acquire the US manufacturer", "An unknown third division club hit the ball and defeated Real Madrid".
If we look for the term unknown in a dictionary of synonyms we don't find many results; In fact, the most common are simply the following four: ignored, unexplored, new and unknown. In this list we have some quite interesting cases, since not all have the same meaning or serve to replace unknown in any sentence.
Let's start with the last one: unknown. It is the one that most closely matches the definition of unknown which we present in the previous paragraphs, since it speaks of a person whom the masses do not know, who can go unnoticed by most people. As implied above, the lack of fame It does not always reflect the degree of skill of a person but also depends on arbitrary factors, such as luck and the familiar saying "being in the right time and place".
Another of the synonyms, new, does not reflect exactly the same, but speaks of the way in which the public He describes the ignored person once he meets her, so that he ceases to be unknown to become "new." Anyway, since when one listens to a singer or sees an athlete for the first time, among many other examples, it takes a while until we incorporate it into the list of "known personalities", and that is why in some cases These words can act as synonyms.
In case of unexplored It is similar: we cannot speak of someone if we do not know him, so to label them in this way we must have seen him and, therefore, remove him from the group of the "unknown". However, between the moment at which it leaves the light and disclosing its full potential can take a long time, so it can be considered "unexplored" until then.
Finally is ignored, which brings unknown an almost moral nuance if we understand that the individual deserved to be taken care of but the public did not do justice to his job .
