Unwitting means not aware of what you are taking part in. An unwitting accomplice, unwitting participants, quite unwitting.
It is the word that separates involvement from guilt, which is why an unwitting accomplice is a real legal category. The wit in it is the old verb meaning to know, which survives in to wit.
1adjectiveunwittingNot aware of what you are taking part in.
“The tourist became an unwitting drug smuggler when a stranger asked her to carry a bag.”
unwitting is a quality.
Old English unwitende means not knowing, from witan, to know.
Proto-Germanic
*unwitandz — not knowing
Old English
unwitende — unwitting; not knowing; unaware; unconscious
Middle English
unwittinge
English, today
unwitting
From Middle English unwittinge, unwitand, from Old English unwitende (“unwitting; not knowing; unaware; unconscious”), from Proto-Germanic unwitandz (“not knowing”), equivalent to un- + witting. Cognate with West Frisian ûnwittend, Dutch onwetend, German Low German unwetend, German unwissend and unwissentlich, Icelandic óvitandi.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA