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

Noun edit

whit (plural whits)

  1. The smallest part or particle imaginable; an iota.
    • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies [] (First Folio), London: [] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:
      Star. I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is done.
      Bot. Not a whit: I have a device to make all well.
    • 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.
Synonyms edit
Translations edit

Etymology 2 edit

Preposition edit

whit

  1. Pronunciation spelling of with.

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)

  1. white, pale, light (in color)
  2. (referring to people) wearing white clothes
  3. (referring to people) having white skin
  4. attractive, fair, beautiful
  5. bright, shining, brilliant
  6. (referring to plants) having white flowers
  7. (heraldry) silver, argent (tincture)
  8. (alchemy) Inducing the transmutation of a substance into silver
  9. (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

Noun edit

whit

  1. white (colour)
  2. white pigment
  3. The white of an egg
  4. The white of an eye
  5. white fabric
  6. white wine
  7. dairy products
  8. Other objects notable for being white

Descendants edit

References edit

See also edit

Colors in Middle English · coloures, hewes (layout · text)
     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

  1. Alternative form of what

References edit

Yola edit

Etymology edit

From Middle English whit, from Old English hwīt, from Proto-West Germanic *hwīt.

Adjective edit

whit (comparative whiter)

  1. white

Derived terms edit

References edit

  • Jacob Poole (1867), 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, page 78
Colors in Yola · [Term?] (layout · text)
     whit, baun      gry      bhlock, blaak
             reed              yulloureed              yullou, ghou, buee
             *leem green              green              *meente
             blúegreen              *asure              blúe
                          purple              rowse