Dictionary

Whit en · NOUN · etymology 1

Meanings

1. Whitsunday.
   • Holonyms: Pentecost, Whitsun, Whitsuntide, Whit (season)
2. The season of Whitsuntide.
   • Meronyms: Pentecost, Whitsun, Whit (day)

Forms

Deriveds

Whitsunday · Whit Saturday · Whit Sunday · Whit Monday · Whitsun

Synonyms

Pentecost · Whitsun · Pentecost · Whitsuntide · Whitsun

wikidata: Q3446130

Whit en · PROPN · etymology 2

Etymology

Shortening of the surname of Dick Whittington, London mayor who funded the rebuilding of the prison.

Meanings

1. (archaic, historical) Newgate Prison in London, England (particularly as it was in the 15- and 1600s).
   • One of the strong drinks brewed in the Whit, a place as noted for the variety of its potions as the irony of its expressions, was called 'South Sea'. The gin brewed in Newgate was […] 2020 May 5, Peter Linebaugh, The London Hanged: Crime and Civil Society in the Eighteenth Century, Verso Books, →ISBN:
   • A Bow Street Runner says "I knew a cove as talked the way you do – leastways, in the way of business I knew him! In fact, you remind me of him very strong […] He was on the dub-lay, and very clever with his fambles. He ended up in the Whit, o’ course." 1951, Georgette Heyer, The Quiet Gentleman:

Forms