wite

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: wīt, IPA^(key): /waɪt/
• Rhymes: -aɪt
• Homophone: wight; white

Etymology 1

From Middle English wīten (“to accuse, reproach, punish, suspect”), Old English wītan (“to look, behold, see, guard, keep, impute or ascribe to, accuse, reproach, blame”), from Proto-Germanic *wītaną. Connected to (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old English wīte, see below.

Alternative forms

• wyte

Verb

1. (chiefly Scotland) To blame; regard as guilty, fault, accuse
2. To reproach, censure, mulct
3. To observe, keep, guard, preserve, protect

Etymology 2

From Middle English wite (“guilt, blameworthiness, blame, wrongdoing, misdeed, offense, punishment, retribution, fine, bote, customary rent”), from Old English wīte (“punishment, pain, torment”), from Proto-Germanic *wītiją, from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see, find, behold”).

Noun

wite (plural wites)

1. (obsolete outside Scotland) Blame, responsibility, guilt.
   • 1922, E. R. Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros, The Project Gutenberg, Australia:

     Nor I will not suffer mine indignation so to witwanton with fair justice as persuade me to put the wite on Witchland.

2. Punishment, penalty, fine, bote, mulct.

Etymology 3

From Middle English witen, from Old English wītan (“to see, accuse, go, depart”), from Proto-Germanic *wītaną, from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see, find, behold”).

Verb

1. (obsolete or poetic) To go, go away, depart, perish, vanish

References

• Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

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Old English

Alternative forms

• ƿite — wynn spelling

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *wītiją (“punishment”). Cognate with Old Frisian wīte, Old Saxon wīti, Dutch wijte, Old High German wīzi, Old Norse víti.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwiː.te/

Noun

wīte n (nominative plural wītu)

1. punishment, torment
2. penalty, fine

Declension

Declension of wite (strong ja-stem)

Case	Singular	Plural
nominative	wīte	wītu
accusative	wīte	wītu
genitive	wītes	wīta
dative	wīte	wītum

Derived terms

Derived terms

• ānwīte (“single fine”)
• bisceopwīte (“fine payable to a bishop, a bishop's fee for visiting”)
• blōdwīte (“blood-offering”)
• dolwīte (“punishment for audacity, temerity or fool-hardiness”)
• edwītan, edwītian (“to reproach edwite”)
• edwīt (“reproach, shame, disgrace, scorn, abuse edwit”)
• edwītful (“disgraceful”)
• edwītfullic (“disgraceful”)
• edwītfullīce (“disgracefully”)
• edwītlīf (“life of dishonor”)
• edwītscipe (“disgrace, shame”)
• edwītspreca (“scoffer”)
• edwītsprǣc (“scorn”)
• edwītstæf (“reproach, disgrace”)

• feohtwīte (“penalty for fighting”)
• feohwīte (“fine for coining false money”)
• fyrdwīte (“fine for evading military service”)
• gafolhwītel (“tribute-blanket, a legal tender instead of coin for the rent of a hide of land”)
• gyltwīte, gyldwīte (“fine for unpaid tax”)
• gyrdwīte (“affliction caused by a rod (used of Moses' rod)”)
• hangwīte (“penally for miscarriage of justice hangwite”)
• hellewītebrōga (“horror of hell-torment”)
• hellewīte (“the torments of hell”)
• hengwīte (“fine for not detaining an offender”)
• legerwīte (“fine for unlawful cohabitation lairwite”)
• nēadwīte (“inevitable punishment”)
• orwīge, orwīte (“not fighting, unwarlike, cowardly: not liable to the legal consequences (of homicide)”)
• sċyldwīte (“fine for a crime of violence”)

• sorgwīte (“grievous torment”)
• unwītnigendlīce (“without punishment, with impunity”)
• unwītnod (“unpunished”)
• unwītnung (“impunity”)
• weardwīte (“penalty for not keeping guard”)
• wītebend (“bonds of torture or punishment”)
• wītebrōga (“tormenting dread”)
• wītefæst (“penally enslaved”)
• wītehrægl (“penitential garb, sackcloth”)
• wītehūs (“torture-house, prison, hell: amphitheatre (as place of torture and martyrdom)”)
• wītelāc (“punishment”)
• wītelēast (“freedom from punishment or fine”)
• wītelēas (“without punishment or fine”)
• wītern (“prison”)

• wīterǣden (“punishment, fine”)
• wītescræf (“pit of torment, hell”)
• wītesteng (“pole used for torture”)
• wītestōw (“place of torment or execution”)
• wīteswing (“scourging, punishment”)
• wītetōl (“instrument of torture”)
• wīteþēow (“man reduced to slavery by the law”)
• wītiglic (“punitive, of punishment”)
• wītingstōw, wītnungstōw (“place of punishment, purgatory”)
• witnian (“to punish, chastise, torture, afflict”)
• wītnigend (“punitor, punisher”)
• wītnung (“torment, torture, punishment, purgatory”)
• ætwītan (“to reproach (with), censure, taunt atwite”)

Descendants

• Latin: wīta

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Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvi.tɛ/

Participle

wite

1. inflection of wity:
   1. neuter nominative/accusative/vocative singular
   2. nonvirile nominative/accusative/vocative plural

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Scots

Verb

wite

1. Alternative form of wyte

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West Frisian

Verb

wite

1. Alternative form of witte

Inflection

Strong class 1
infinitive	wite
3rd singular past	wiet
past participle	witen
infinitive	wite
long infinitive	witen
gerund	witen n
auxiliary	hawwe
indicative	present tense	past tense
1st singular	wyt	wiet
2nd singular	wytst	wietst
3rd singular	wyt	wiet
plural	wite	wieten
imperative	wyt
participles	witend	witen