benighted (adj.)
1570s, "overtaken by darkness," past-participle adjective from obsolete verb benight (q.v.). Little used in the literal sense, usually it means "in intellectual or moral darkness" (1630s).
What is the meaning of word benighted?
1 : overtaken by darkness or night Benighted travellers … have seen his midnight candle glimmering.— W. B. Yeats. 2 : existing in a state of intellectual, moral, or social darkness : unenlightened spreading their message among these poor benighted people a strange, benighted country.
What does benighted soul mean?
adj. 1 lacking cultural, moral, or intellectual enlightenment; ignorant. 2 Archaic overtaken by night.
