whit
See also: Whit
English edit
Etymology 1 edit
From Middle English wiȝt, wight, from Old English wiht (“wight, person, creature, being, whit, thing, something, anything”), from Proto-Germanic *wihtą (“thing, creature”) or *wihtiz (“essence, object”), from Proto-Indo-European *wekti- (“cause, sake, thing”), from *wekʷ- (“to say, tell”). Cognate with Old High German wiht (“creature, thing”), Dutch wicht, German Wicht. Doublet of wight.
Pronunciation edit
- enPR: wĭt, hwĭt, IPA(key): /wɪt/, /ʍɪt/
- Rhymes: -ɪt
- Homophone: wit (in accents with the wine-whine merger)
Noun edit
whit (plural whits)
- The smallest part or particle imaginable; an iota.
- Synonyms: bit, iota, jot, scrap; see also Thesaurus:modicum
- c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], page 151:
- Star. I beleeue we muſt leaue the killing out, when all is done.
Bot. Not a whit: I haue a deuice to make all well.
- 1890 December 9, Thomas H. Huxley, “Letter to the "Times" on the "Darkest England Scheme"”, in Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays[1]:
- Sadly behind the great age of rowdy self-advertisement in which their lot has fallen, they seem not to have advanced one whit beyond John the Baptist and the Apostles, 1800 years ago, in their notions of the way in which the metanoia, the change of mind of the ill-doer, is to be brought about.
- 1917, Countee Cullen, Incident:
- Now I was eight and very small, / And he was no whit bigger / And so I smiled, but he poked out / His tongue, and called me, 'Nigger.'
- 1944 July and August, “London Railway Stations in 1893”, in Railway Magazine, page 201, taken from The English Illustrated Magazine of June 1893:
- In conclusion, I would remark that the great railway stations of London deserve to be visited every whit as much as St. Paul's Cathedral, the Abbey, or the Tower, and they are as worthy a memento of this century as those buildings are of the days that are gone.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
smallest part imaginable
Etymology 2 edit
Preposition edit
whit
Anagrams edit
Middle English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
Inherited from Old English hwīt, from Proto-West Germanic *hwīt, from Proto-Germanic *hwītaz.
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
whit (plural and weak singular white, comparative whitter, superlative whittest)
- white, pale, light (in color)
- c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)[2], published c. 1410, Apocalips 1:14, page 117v; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:
- ⁊ þe heed of him ⁊ his heeris weren whiyt as whiyt wolle .· ⁊ as ſnow / ⁊ þe iȝen of him as flawme of fier .·
- And his head and his hairs were white, like white wool or snow, and his eyes were like fire's flame.
- (referring to people) wearing white clothes
- (referring to people) having white skin
- attractive, fair, beautiful
- bright, shining, brilliant
- (referring to plants) having white flowers
- (heraldry) silver, argent (tincture)
- (alchemy) Inducing the transmutation of a substance into silver
- (medicine) Unusually light; bearing the pallor of death
Related terms edit
Descendants edit
- English: white (see there for further descendants)
- Scots: quhite, fyte, fite, whyte, white
- Yola: whit
References edit
- “whīt, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-30.
Noun edit
whit
- white (colour)
- white pigment
- The white of an egg
- The white of an eye
- white fabric
- white wine
- dairy products
- Other objects notable for being white
Descendants edit
References edit
- “whīt, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-30.
See also edit
whit | grey, hor | blak |
red; cremesyn, gernet | citrine, aumbre; broun, tawne | yelow, dorry, gul; canevas |
grasgrene | grene | |
plunket; ewage | asure, livid | blewe, blo, pers |
violet; inde | rose, murrey; purpel, purpur | claret |
Scots edit
Pronunciation edit
Pronoun edit
whit
- Alternative form of what
References edit
- “what, pron., adv., adj., conj., interj..” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.
Yola edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English whit, from Old English hwīt, from Proto-West Germanic *hwīt.
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
whit (comparative whiter)
- white
- 1867, “VERSES IN ANSWER TO THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 2, page 100:
- Thou ne'er eighthest buskès, whit palskès, breede-kaake.
- Thou never eatedst spiced bread, white palskes, (or) bride-cake.
Derived terms edit
References edit
- Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 78
whit, baun | gry | bhlock, blaak |
reed | yulloureed | yullou, ghou, buee |
*leem green | green | *meente |
blúegreen | *asure | blúe |
purple | rowse |