wit

English Online Dictionary. What means wit‎? What does wit mean?

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: wĭt, IPA^(key): /wɪt/
• Rhymes: -ɪt
• Homophone: whit (wine–whine merger)

Etymology 1

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 vīdī (“see (pf.)”), Bulgarian вям (vjam), Russian ве́дать (védatʹ), Sanskrit विद्या (vidyā). Compare wise.

Noun

wit (countable and uncountable, plural wits)

1. (now usually in the plural) Sanity.

2. (obsolete, usually in the plural) The senses.
3. Intellectual ability; faculty of thinking, reasoning.

4. The ability to think quickly; mental cleverness, especially under short time constraints.

5. Intelligence; common sense.
6. Humour, especially when clever or quick.
7. A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes; someone witty.

Synonyms

• (intellectual ability): See also Thesaurus:intelligence

Derived terms

Translations

See also

(type of humor):

• acid
• biting
• cutting
• lambent

Etymology 2

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, Danish vide, Swedish veta, and Latin videō (“I see”). Compare guide.

Verb

wit (see below for this verb’s conjugation)

2. (transitive, intransitive, chiefly archaic) Know, be aware of (constructed with of when used intransitively).

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.
• To wit is now defective because, outside of conscious archaizing, it can only be used in the infinitive.

Conjugation

Derived terms

• bewit
• to wit
• unwitting
• witness

Translations

Etymology 3

From with.

Pronunciation

• (Southern US) (before consonants) IPA^(key): /wɪt/, (before yod) /wɪtʃ/

Preposition

wit

1. (Southern US) Pronunciation spelling of with.

See also

• wit woo

Anagrams

• Twi, TWI, WTI, ITW, twi-, Tiw

Afrikaans

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vət/

Adjective

wit (attributive wit, comparative witter, superlative witste)

1. white (colour)

   Antonym: swart

2. white, White (classification of people)

   Synonym: blank

   Coordinate terms: bruin, swart

Inflection

Balinese

Romanization

wit

1. Romanization of ᬯᬶᬢ᭄

Belizean Creole

Preposition

wit

1. Alternative form of wid

References

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

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʋɪt/
• Hyphenation: wit
• Rhymes: -ɪt

Etymology 1

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.

Adjective

wit (comparative witter, superlative witst)

1. white

   De muur is wit. ― The wall is white.

   Ze droeg een witte jurk tijdens het feest. ― She wore a white dress at the party.

   Zijn tanden zijn witter dan die van haar. ― His teeth are whiter than hers.

2. (of income) legally obtained by having paid the appropriate taxes

   Zijn inkomen is volledig wit. ― His income is fully legal and taxed.

   Veel mensen streven ernaar om een wit inkomen te hebben. ― Many people aim to have a white, or legally obtained income.

3. (chiefly Suriname) having a white skin colour, light-skinned (see usage note)

   Synonym: blank

4. (Suriname) having a relatively light skin colour
5. (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 notes

• Since the 2010s, wit has come to be increasingly used in continental Dutch among youth and others (associated with social justice movements) as a more neutral alternative to the most commonly used blank, which is argued to be tainted by the colonial era (see Afrikaans blank) and have a connotation of "cleanliness" and "purity" that wit does not have. See Blank en wit in het racismedebat on nlwiki.

Inflection

Antonyms

• zwart

Derived terms

Related terms

• wijting

Noun

wit n (plural witten, diminutive witje n)

1. (uncountable) white (color)

2. (archaic) (short for doelwit (“goal, target, the white in a bullseye”))

3. (slang) cocaine

Derived terms

• eiwit

Descendants

• Afrikaans: wit
• Berbice Creole Dutch: wete
• Jersey Dutch: wät
• Negerhollands: wit, wet
• → Aukan: weti
• → Saramaccan: wéti

Verb

wit

1. inflection of witten:
   1. first/second/third-person singular present indicative
   2. imperative

See also

Etymology 2

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.

Noun

wit n (plural witten, diminutive witje n)

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

Related terms

• wittig, wittigen, wittiger, verwittigen

Anagrams

• Twi

Gothic

Romanization

wit

1. Romanization of 𐍅𐌹𐍄

Javanese

Romanization

wit

1. Romanization of ꦮꦶꦠ꧀

Louisiana Creole

Etymology

Inherited from French huit (“eight”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wit/
• Rhymes: -it

Numeral

wit

1. eight

Mauritian Creole

Etymology

From French huit.

Numeral

wit

1. eight

Middle Dutch

Etymology

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.

Adjective

wit

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

Inflection

Alternative forms

• wijt

Descendants

• Dutch: wit
• Limburgish: wiet

Further reading

• “wit”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “wit (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page I

Middle English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wit/

Etymology 1

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

Alternative forms

• witt, witte, wytt, wyt

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wit/

Noun

wit (plural wittes)

1. mind, sanity

Descendants

• English: wit
• Yola: wut

References

• “wit, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

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

Alternative forms

• wyt, witt

Pronoun

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

1. (Early Middle English) First-person dual pronoun: we twain, the two of us.

See also

References

• “wit, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 11 May 2018.

North Frisian

Alternative forms

• witj (Föhr-Amrum)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Sylt) IPA^(key): [vɪt]

Adjective

wit

1. (Mooring, Sylt) white

Inflection

Old English

Alternative forms

• wyt

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wit/

Pronoun

wit

1. we two

Declension

Descendants

• Middle English: wit

Old French

Etymology

Spelling variant of uit

Numeral

wit

1. eight

Old High German

Etymology

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

Adjective

wīt

1. wide

Descendants

• Middle High German: wīt
  • Central Franconian: weck, wick, wiet, weit
    • Luxembourgish: wäit (“far”), weit (“wide”)
  • German: weit
  • Yiddish: ווײַט (vayt)

Old Javanese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wit/

Etymology 1

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.)

Noun

wit

1. tree
2. stem
3. base, foundation
4. origin, cause

Alternative forms

• wwit
• wwīt

Derived terms

Descendants

• Javanese: ꦮꦶꦠ꧀ (wit)
• → Balinese: ᬯᬶᬢ᭄ (wit)

Etymology 2

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.)

Verb

wit

1. to leave

Alternative forms

• wwit

Derived terms

Further reading

• "wit" in P.J. Zoetmulder with the collaboration of S.O. Robson, Old Javanese-English Dictionary. 's-Gravenhage: M. Nijhoff, 1982.

Old Saxon

Etymology

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

Pronoun

wit

1. we two; nominative dual of ik

Declension

Tagalog

Etymology

From wis, a play on was.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈwit/ [ˈwit̪̚]
• Rhymes: -it
• Syllabification: wit

Pronoun

wit (Baybayin spelling ᜏᜒᜆ᜔) (gay slang)

1. Alternative form of was

Derived terms

Tok Pisin

Etymology

From English wheat.

Noun

wit

1. wheat