wit
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[edit] English
[edit] Pronunciation
- (UK) enPR: wĭt, IPA: /wɪt/, SAMPA: /wIt/
- (US) enPR: wĭt, IPA: /wɪt/, SAMPA: /wIt/
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Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪt
- Homophone: whit (in accents with the wine-whine merger)
[edit] Etymology 1
From Middle English, from Old English witt (“understanding, intellect, sense, knowledge, consciousness, conscience”), from Proto-Germanic *witjan (“knowledge, reason”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd-, *wid- (“see, know”). Cognate with Dutch weet, German Witz, Danish vid, Swedish vett, Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐍅𐌹𐍄𐌹 (unwiti, “ignorance”), Latin videō (“see”). Compare wise.
[edit] Noun
wit (plural wits)
- (now usually in the plural) Sanity.
- He's gone completely out of his wits.
- (obsolete usually in the plural) The senses.
- Intellectual ability; faculty of thinking, reasoning.
- Where she has gone to is beyond the wit of man to say.
- The ability to think quickly; mental cleverness, especially under short time constraints.
- My father had a quick wit and a steady hand.
- Intelligence; common sense.
- The opportunity was right in front of you, and you didn't even have the wit to take it!
- Spoken humour, especially when clever or quick.
- The best man's speech was hilarious, full of wit and charm.
- A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes; someone witty.
- Your friend is quite a wit, isn't he?
[edit] Synonyms
- See also Wikisaurus:intelligence
[edit] Derived terms
[edit] Translations
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[edit] See also
(type of humor):
[edit] Etymology 2
From Old English witan, from Proto-Germanic *witanan, from Proto-Indo-European *weyd-, *wid- (“see, know”). Cognate with Dutch weten, German wissen, Swedish veta, and Latin videō (“I see”). Compare guide.
[edit] Verb
to wit (see below for this verb’s conjugation)
- (ambitransitive, chiefly archaic) Know, be aware of (construed 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.
- 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.
[edit] Conjugation
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[edit] Usage notes
- 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.
[edit] Derived terms
[edit] Anagrams
[edit] Afrikaans
[edit] Etymology
From Dutch wit.
[edit] Adjective
wit
[edit] Anglo-Norman
[edit] Cardinal number
wit
[edit] Dutch
[edit] Etymology
From Old Dutch *wīt with unexpected shortening of the vowel, from Proto-Germanic *hwītaz.
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Adjective
wit (comparative witter, superlative witst)
- white
- De wand is wit.
- The wall is white.
- De wand is wit.
[edit] Declension
[edit] Noun
wit n. (plural witten, diminutive witje)
- (uncountable) white (color)
- Wit is alle kleuren ineens.
- White is all colors at once.
- Wit is alle kleuren ineens.
- (countable) A person with blond hair.
- De Witte van Zichem.
- The blond boy from Zichem (a famous book).
- De Witte van Zichem.
- (slang) cocaine
- Heb je een halfje wit?
[edit] Derived terms
[edit] Verb
wit
- first-, second- and third-person singular present indicative of witten.
- imperative of witten.
[edit] Anagrams
[edit] Gothic
[edit] Romanization
wit
- Romanization of 𐍅𐌹𐍄
[edit] Louisiana Creole French
[edit] Cardinal number
wit
- (cardinal) eight
[edit] Old English
[edit] Etymology
From Proto-Germanic *wet, from Proto-Indo-European *wed-, a suffixed form of *wei- (see wē). Cognate with Old Norse vit, Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐍄 (wit), and Lithuanian vèdu.
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Pronoun
wit (personal)
[edit] Old High German
[edit] Etymology
From Proto-Germanic *wīdaz, whence also Old English wīd and Old Norse víðr.
[edit] Adjective
wit
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English nouns
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English verbs
- English archaic terms
- English irregular verbs
- English terms with homophones
- en:Comedy
- Afrikaans terms derived from Dutch
- Afrikaans adjectives
- af:Colors
- Anglo-Norman cardinal numbers
- Dutch terms derived from Old Dutch
- Dutch terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Dutch adjectives
- Dutch nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- Dutch slang
- Dutch verb forms
- Dutch verb imperative forms
- nl:Colors
- Gothic romanizations
- Louisiana Creole French cardinal numbers
- Old English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Old English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Old English pronouns
- Old High German terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Old High German adjectives