whit

See also: Whit

English

Etymology 1

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

• enPR: wĭt, hwĭt, IPA^(key): /wɪt/, /ʍɪt/
• Rhymes: -ɪt
• Homophone: wit (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Noun

whit (plural whits)

1. The smallest part or particle imaginable; an iota.

   He worked tirelessly to collect and wind a ball of string eight feet around, and it matters not one whit.

   • 1602: William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act V scene 2

     Not a whit.

   • 1917, Incident by Countee Cullen

     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.'

Synonyms

• (smallest part imaginable): bit, iota, jot, scrap
• See also Thesaurus:modicum.

Translations

smallest part imaginable

• Finnish: rahtunen, hitunen (fi), hiukkanen (fi)
• French: once (fr) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Romanian: iotă (ro) f
• Russian: йо́та (ru) f (jóta), ка́пелька (ru) f (kápelʹka), чу́точка (ru) f (čútočka)

Etymology 2

From with.

Preposition

1. Eye dialect spelling of with.

Anagrams

• with, with-

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Middle English

Alternative forms

• hwit, white, whyte, whitt, whytt, whyt, whiȝt, qwyght, ȝwijt, wyghte

Etymology

Old English hwīt, from Proto-Germanic *hwītaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʍiːt/

Adjective

whit (plural and weak singular white, comparative whitter, superlative whittest)

1. white, pale, light (in color)

   • a. 1382, John Wycliffe, “Apocalips 1:14”, in Wycliffe's Bible:

     And the heed of hym and his heeris weren whijt, as whijt wolle, and as snow; and the iȝen of hym as flawme of fier.

     And his head and his hairs were white, as white wool, and like snow, and his eyes were like fire's flame.

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

• snow whit

Descendants

• English: white
• Scots: quhite, fyte, fite, whyte, white
• Yola: whit

References

• “whīt (adj.)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-30.

Noun

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

• English: white
• Scots: quhite, fyte, fite, whyte, white

References

• “whīt (n.)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-30.

See also

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

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Scots

Pronoun

whit

1. what