Wiktionary

wit

See also: Wit, WIT, wít, wit., and wit'

EnglishEdit

PronunciationEdit

Etymology 1Edit

From Middle English wit, from Old English witt (“understanding, intellect, sense, knowledge, consciousness, conscience”), from Proto-West Germanic *witi, from Proto-Germanic *witją (“knowledge, reason”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“see, know”).

Cognate with Dutch weet, German Witz, Danish vid, Swedish vett, Norwegian Bokmål vett, Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐍅𐌹𐍄𐌹 (unwiti, “ignorance”), Latin videō (“see”), Bulgarian ви́дя (vídja), Russian ви́деть (vídetʹ), Sanskrit विद्या (vidyā). Compare wise.

NounEdit

wit (countable and uncountable, plural wits)

  1. (now usually in the plural) Sanity.
    He's gone completely out of his wits.
  2. (obsolete, usually in the plural) The senses.
  3. Intellectual ability; faculty of thinking, reasoning.
    Where she has gone to is beyond the wit of man to say.
  4. The ability to think quickly; mental cleverness, especially under short time constraints.
    My father had a quick wit and a steady hand.
  5. Intelligence; common sense.
    The opportunity was right in front of you, and you didn't even have the wit to take it!
  6. Humour, especially when clever or quick.
    The best man's speech was hilarious, full of wit and charm.
    • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 152:
      Wit is just as much put upon—blamed for a thousand impertinences over which it would not have held for a moment its glittering shield; it is like the radiant fairy doomed to wander over earth, concealed and transformed, and only allowed on rare occasions to shine forth in its true and sparkling form. It is well that wit is an impalpable and ethereal substance, or it must long since have evaporated in indignation at that peculiarly wretched and mistaken race, its imitators.
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
      The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; […] . Our table in the dining-room became again the abode of scintillating wit and caustic repartee, Farrar bracing up to his old standard, and the demand for seats in the vicinity rose to an animated competition.
    • 1996 February 4, Jennifer Crittenden, “Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield”, in The Simpsons, season 7, episode 14:
      Evelyn Peters: "Don't worry, Marge. Her idea of wit is nothing more than an incisive observation humorously phrased and delivered with impeccable timing".
    • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, London: Heinemann, →OCLC, page 37:
      ...the cemetery—which people of shattering wit like Sampson never tired of calling ‘the dead centre of town’...
  7. A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes; someone witty.
    Your friend is quite a wit, isn't he?
    • 1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act III:
      Tuc[ca]. […] Can thy Author doe it impudently enough? / Hiſt[rio]. O, I warrant you, Captaine: and ſpitefully inough too; he ha's one of the moſt ouerflowing villanous wits, in Rome. He will ſlander any man that breathes; If he diſguſt him. / Tucca. I'le know the poor, egregious, nitty Raſcall; and he haue ſuch commendable Qualities, I'le cheriſh him: […]
SynonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
Terms derived from wit
TranslationsEdit
intelligence — see intelligence

See alsoEdit

(type of humor):

Etymology 2Edit

From Middle English witen, from Old English witan, from Proto-West Germanic *witan, from Proto-Germanic *witaną, from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“see, know”).

Cognate with Icelandic vita, Dutch weten, German wissen, Swedish veta, and Latin videō (“I see”). Compare guide.

VerbEdit

wit (see below for this verb’s conjugation)

  2. (transitive, intransitive, chiefly archaic) Know, be aware of (constructed with of when used intransitively).
    You committed terrible actions — to wit, murder and theft — and should be punished accordingly.
    They are meddling in matters that men should not wit of.
    • 1483 Thomas Malory: Le morte d'Arthur
      Truly, said fair Elaine, I shall do all that I may do, for as fain would I know and wit where he is become as you or any of his kin, or queen Guenever, and cause great enough have I thereto as well as any other. And wit ye well, said fair Elaine to Sir Bors, I would lose my life for him rather than he should be hurt.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 2:3–4:
      And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.
    • 1849, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, St. Luke the Painter, lines 5–8
      but soon having wist
      How sky-breadth and field-silence and this day
      Are symbols also in some deeper way,
      She looked through these to God and was God’s priest.
Usage notesEdit
  • As a preterite-present verb, the third-person singular indicative form is not wits but wot; the plural indicative forms conform to the infinitive: we wit, ye wit, they wit.
  • To wit is now defective because, outside of conscious archaizing, it can only be used in the infinitive.
ConjugationEdit
Infinitive to wit
Imperative wit
Present participle witting
Past participle wist
Present indicative Past indicative
First-person singular I wot I wist
Second-person singular thou wost, wot(test) (archaic) thou wist(est) (archaic)
Third-person singular he/she/it wot he/she/it wist
First-person plural we wit(e) we wist
Second-person plural ye wit(e) (archaic) ye wist (archaic)
Third-person plural they wit(e) they wist
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit

Etymology 3Edit

From with.

PronunciationEdit

PrepositionEdit

wit

  1. (Southern US) Pronunciation spelling of with.

AnagramsEdit

AfrikaansEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Dutch wit, from Middle Dutch wit, from Old Dutch *wit, from Proto-Germanic *hwittaz.

PronunciationEdit

AdjectiveEdit

wit (attributive wit, comparative witter, superlative witste)

  1. white

BalineseEdit

RomanizationEdit

wit

  1. Romanization of ᬯᬶᬢ᭄

Belizean CreoleEdit

PrepositionEdit

wit

  1. Alternative form of wid

ReferencesEdit

  • Crosbie, Paul, ed. (2007), Kriol-Inglish Dikshineri: English-Kriol Dictionary. Belize City: Belize Kriol Project, p. 374.

DutchEdit

PronunciationEdit

Etymology 1Edit

From Middle Dutch wit, from Old Dutch *wit, from Proto-West Germanic *hwīt, from Proto-Germanic *hwittaz. The geminate is unexpected as the usual Proto-Germanic form is *hwītaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱweytos (“shine; bright”).

The geminate is sometimes explained as being the result of Kluge's law, thus from a pre-Germanic *kweyd-nos.

AdjectiveEdit

wit (comparative witter, superlative witst)

  1. white
    De wand is wit.
    The (inner) wall is white.
  2. (chiefly Suriname) having a white skin colour, light-skinned (see usage note)
    Synonym: blank
  3. (Suriname) having a relatively light skin colour
  4. (of income) legally obtained by having paid the appropriate taxes
  5. pure, untainted
  6. (archaic) clear-lighted, not dark at all
    De lang gewenste dag verscheen, heel klaar en wit.
    The long-wished-for day appeared, very clear and white.
Usage notesEdit
  • Recently, wit has come to be used in continental Dutch by some (associated with social justice movements) to refer to a specific skin colour, i.e. to light-skinned people of apparent mostly European descent. Traditionally, the adjective blank has been used there for this purpose, and this usage is by far the most widespread in the Netherlands and Belgium.
InflectionEdit
Inflection of wit
uninflected wit
inflected witte
comparative witter
positive comparative superlative
predicative/adverbial wit witter het witst
het witste
indefinite m./f. sing. witte wittere witste
n. sing. wit witter witste
plural witte wittere witste
definite witte wittere witste
partitive wits witters —
AntonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit

NounEdit

wit n (plural witten, diminutive witje n)

  1. (uncountable) white (color)
    Wit is alle kleuren ineens.
    White is all colors at once.
  2. (archaic) (short for doelwit (“goal, target, the white in a bullseye”))
    Myn wit is Adam en zyn afkomst te bederven. (in Lucifer, by Vondel)
    My goal is to corrupt Adam and his origin.
  3. (slang) cocaine
    • 2011, Esther Schenk, Straatwaarde, Luitingh-Sijthoff B.V., →ISBN:
      Op de Baan verschijnen dealers die gekookte coke aanbieden. Dat is het ei van Columbus. Nu hoef ik niet meer met mijn wit eerst naar huis om het te gaan koken.
      (please add an English translation of this quote)
    • 2014, Helen Vreeswijk, Overdosis, Unieboek, →ISBN:
      ‘Je bestelde ook een halfje wit’, hield De Main hem voor. ‘Wat is dat dan?’
      (please add an English translation of this quote)
    Heb je een halfje wit?
    Do you have a dose of cocaine? (The phrase halfje wit normally means "half a loaf of white bread".)
Derived termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
  • Afrikaans: wit
  • Berbice Creole Dutch: wete
  • Jersey Dutch: wät
  • Negerhollands: wit, wet
  • → Aukan: weti
  • → Saramaccan: wéti

VerbEdit

wit

  1. first-, second- and third-person singular present indicative of witten
  2. imperative of witten

See alsoEdit

Colors in Dutch · kleuren (layout · text)
     wit      grijs      zwart
             rood; karmijnrood              oranje; bruin              geel; roomwit
             groengeel/limoengroen              groen             
             blauwgroen/cyaan; groenblauw/petrolblauw              azuurblauw              blauw
             violet; indigo              magenta; paars              roze

Etymology 2Edit

From Middle Dutch wit, from Old Dutch *witti, from Proto-West Germanic *witi, from Proto-Germanic *witją (“knowledge, reason”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“see, know”).

Related to weten (“to know”), wis (“knowledge”) and wijs (“wise”). Cognate with English wit, German Witz.

NounEdit

wit n (plural witten, diminutive witje n)

  1. (archaic) ability to think and reason
  2. (archaic) knowledge
Related termsEdit

AnagramsEdit

GothicEdit

RomanizationEdit

wit

  1. Romanization of 𐍅𐌹𐍄

JavaneseEdit

RomanizationEdit

wit

  1. Romanization of ꦮꦶꦠ꧀

Louisiana CreoleEdit

Louisiana Creole cardinal numbers
<  7 8 9  >
    Cardinal : wit
    Ordinal : wityèmm

EtymologyEdit

From French huit (“eight”).

PronunciationEdit

NumeralEdit

wit

  1. eight.

Mauritian CreoleEdit

Mauritian Creole cardinal numbers
<  7 8 9  >
    Cardinal : wit
    Ordinal : witiem

EtymologyEdit

From French huit.

NumeralEdit

wit

  1. eight

Middle DutchEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Old Dutch *wit, from Proto-Germanic *hwittaz. The long-vowel variant wijt is from Old Dutch wīt, from Proto-West Germanic *hwīt, from Proto-Germanic *hwītaz.

AdjectiveEdit

wit

  1. white
  2. clean
  3. pale (of skin)

InflectionEdit

This adjective needs an inflection-table template.

Alternative formsEdit

DescendantsEdit

Further readingEdit

Middle EnglishEdit

PronunciationEdit

Etymology 1Edit

From Old English witt, from Proto-West Germanic *witi, from Proto-Germanic *witją.

Alternative formsEdit

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

wit (plural wittes)

  1. mind, sanity
DescendantsEdit
ReferencesEdit

Etymology 2Edit

From Old English wit (“we two”), from Proto-West Germanic *wit, from Proto-Germanic *wet. Compare the first-person plural pronoun we.

Alternative formsEdit

PronounEdit

wit (accusative unk, genitive unker, possessive determiner unker)

  1. (Early Middle English) First-person dual pronoun: we twain, the two of us.
See alsoEdit
Middle English personal pronouns
nominative accusative dative genitive possessive
singular 1st-person I, ich, ik me min
mi1		 min
2nd-person þou þe þin
þi1		 þin
3rd-person m he him
hine2		 him his his
hisen
f sche, heo hire
heo 		hire hire
hires, hiren
n hit hit
him2		 his, hit —
dual3 1st-person wit unk unker
2nd-person ȝit inc inker
plural 1st-person we us, ous oure oure
oures, ouren
2nd-person4 ye yow your your
youres, youren
3rd-person inh. he hem
he2		 hem here here
heres, heren
bor. þei þem, þeim þeir þeir
þeires, þeiren

1Used preconsonantally or before h.
2Early or dialectal.
3Dual pronouns are only sporadically found in Early Middle English; after that, they are replaced by plural forms. There are no third-person dual forms in Middle English.
4Sometimes used as a formal 2nd-person singular.

ReferencesEdit

North FrisianEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Old Frisian hwīt, from Proto-West Germanic *hwīt, from Proto-Germanic *hwītaz. Compare West Frisian wyt.

PronunciationEdit

IPA(key): /vɪt/

AdjectiveEdit

wit

  1. (Sylt) white

Old EnglishEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Proto-West Germanic *wit, from Proto-Germanic *wet, from a suffixed form of *wéy (see wē). Cognate with North Frisian wat, Old Norse vit, Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐍄 (wit), and Lithuanian vèdu.

PronunciationEdit

PronounEdit

wit (personal)

  1. (the first-person dual nominative) we two

Old FrenchEdit

EtymologyEdit

Spelling variant of uit

NumeralEdit

wit

  1. eight

Old High GermanEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Proto-Germanic *wīdaz, whence also Old Saxon wīt, Old English wīd and Old Norse víðr.

AdjectiveEdit

wīt

  1. wide

DescendantsEdit

Old JavaneseEdit

PronunciationEdit

Etymology 1Edit

Probably from Proto-Mon-Khmer *rwiʔ (“fig tree”). (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

NounEdit

wit

  1. origin, cause;
  2. base, foundation
  3. stem
  4. tree
Alternative formsEdit
Derived termsEdit
DescendantsEdit

Etymology 2Edit

Probably related to Temiar wek (“to go, to leave, to depart”). Compare Indonesian pamit (“to ask for leaving”). (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

VerbEdit

wit

  1. to leave
Alternative formsEdit
Derived termsEdit

Old SaxonEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Proto-West Germanic *wit, from Proto-Germanic *wet. Accusative from Proto-Germanic *unk, dative from *unkiz.

PronounEdit

wit

  1. we two; nominative dual of ik

DeclensionEdit

Old Saxon personal pronouns
Personal pronouns
Singular 1. 2. 3. m 3. f 3. n
Nominative ik thū hē siu it
Accusative mī, me, mik thī, thik ina sia
Dative mī thī imu iru it
Genitive mīn thīn is ira is
Dual 1. 2. - - -
Nominative wit git - - -
Accusative unk ink - - -
Dative
Genitive unkero

inker, inka

- - -
Plural 1. 2. 3. m 3. f 3. n
Nominative wī, we gī, ge sia sia siu
Accusative ūs, unsik eu, iu, iuu
Dative ūs im
Genitive ūser euwar, iuwer, iuwar, iuwero, iuwera iro

Tok PisinEdit

EtymologyEdit

From English wheat.

NounEdit

wit

  1. wheat
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