wit en · NOUN · etymology 1
Pronunciation
- (US) audio
- /wɪt/
- wĭt
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *weyd- Proto-Indo-European *wóyde Proto-Germanic *witaną Proto-Germanic *witją Proto-West Germanic *witi Old English witt Middle English wit English wit From Middle English wit, witt, wyt, from Old English witt (“mind, sanity, sense, understanding”), from Proto-West Germanic *witi, from Proto-Germanic *witją (“knowledge; reason; wit”), from Proto-Germanic *witaną (“to know”), from Proto-Indo-European *wóyde (“to know”), from *weyd- (“to see”). Cognates Cognate with Dutch wit (“knowledge”), German and Luxembourgish Witz (“joke; humour, wit”), Low German Weet (“knowledge; idea; inkling”), Yiddish וויץ (vits, “joke”), Danish vid (“wit”), Faroese and Icelandic vit (“intelligence, wits; reason, sense; knowledge; awareness, sentience”), Norwegian Bokmål and Swedish vett (“intelligence, sense, wit”), Norwegian Nynorsk vett, vit (“sense, wits”), Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐍅𐌹𐍄𐌹 (unwiti, “folly, ignorance”); also Breton gouzout (“to know”), Cornish godhvos, goffos (“to know”), Irish feadair (“to know”), Welsh gwybod (“to know”), Latin videō (“to see”), Ancient Greek οἶδ’ (oîd’), οἶδα (oîda, “to know”), Albanian vizë (“line, stripe, track; dash”), Latvian veids (“form, kind, mode, type”), Lithuanian veidas (“face; front; appearance, aspect, look”), Belarusian ве́даць (vjédacʹ, “to know”), Bulgarian вям (vjam, “to know”), Czech vědět (“to know”), Polish wiedzieć (“to know”), Russian ве́дать (védatʹ, “to know”), Serbo-Croatian vedeti, viedieti (“to know”), Slovak vedieť (“to know”), Slovene vedeti (“to know”), Ukrainian ві́дати (vídaty, “to know; to deal, manage”), Armenian գիտեմ (gitem, “I know”), գիտենալ (gitenal), գիտնալ (gitnal, “to know”), Avestan 𐬬𐬀𐬉𐬛 (vaēd, “find”), 𐬬𐬌𐬛 (vid, “know, understand”), Persian نوید (navid / nawīd, nuwēd, “invitation; annunciation; good news”), Tocharian A ime (“awareness, consciousness, memory, thought”), Tocharian B īme (“awareness, consciousness, memory, thought”), ūwe (“educated, knowledgeable, learned”), Sanskrit विद् (vid, “to know; to find; to consider as”). Compare wise.
Meanings
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(countable, plural-normally, uncountable) Sanity.
He's gone completely out of his wits.
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(countable, plural-normally, uncountable) The senses.
Keep your wits about you.
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(countable, uncountable) Intellectual ability; faculty of thinking, reasoning.
Where she has gone to is beyond the wit of man to say.
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(countable, uncountable) The ability to think quickly; mental cleverness, especially under short time constraints.
My father had a quick wit and a steady hand.
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(countable, uncountable) Intelligence; common sense.
Wel, wel (Meander) thou art deepely read: And hauing thee, I haue a iewell ſure: Go on my Lord, and giue your charge I ſay, Thy wit wil make vs Conquerors to day.
c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene ii:I gif the witt, I gif the strenght, / of all thou sees, of brede & lengthe; / thou shall be wonder wise. / Myrth and Ioy to haue at will, / All thi likyng to fulfill, / and dwell in paradise.
15th c., “[The Creation]”, in Wakefield Mystery Plays; Re-edited in George England, Alfred W. Pollard, editors, The Towneley Plays (Early English Text Society Extra Series; LXXI), London: […] Oxford University Press, 1897, →OCLC, page 6, lines 174–179:O, learn to read what silent love hath writ: To hear with eyes belongs to love's fine wit.
1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 23”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:The opportunity was right in front of you, and you didn't even have the wit to take it!
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(countable, uncountable) Humour, especially when clever or quick.
[…] the cemetery – which people of shattering wit like Sampson never tired of calling ‘the dead centre of town’ […]
1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section III, page 26:The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;[…]. Our table in the dining-room became again the abode of scintillating wit and caustic repartee, Farrar bracing up to his old standard, and the demand for seats in the vicinity rose to an animated competition.
1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:Wit is just as much put upon—blamed for a thousand impertinences over which it would not have held for a moment its glittering shield; it is like the radiant fairy doomed to wander over earth, concealed and transformed, and only allowed on rare occasions to shine forth in its true and sparkling form. It is well that wit is an impalpable and ethereal substance, or it must long since have evaporated in indignation at that peculiarly wretched and mistaken race, its imitators.
1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 152:Evelyn Peters: "Don't worry, Marge. Her idea of wit is nothing more than an incisive observation humorously phrased and delivered with impeccable timing".
1996 February 4, Jennifer Crittenden, “Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield”, in The Simpsons, season 7, episode 14, production code 3F13:The best man's speech was hilarious, full of wit and charm.
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(countable, uncountable) A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes; someone witty.
Tuc[ca]. […] Can thy Author doe it impudently enough? / Hiſt[rio]. O, I warrant you, Captaine: and ſpitefully inough too; he ha's one of the moſt ouerflowing villanous wits, in Rome. He will ſlander any man that breathes; If he diſguſt him. / Tucca. I'le know the poor, egregious, nitty Raſcall; and he haue ſuch commendable Qualities, I'le cheriſh him: […]
1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act III:Your friend is quite a wit, isn't he?
[…] here were no Gibers, Cenſurers, Backbiters, Pick-pockets, Highwaymen, Houſebreakers, Attorneys, Bawds, Buffoons, Gameſters, Politicians, Wits, ſplenetick tedious Talkers, Controvertiſts, Raviſhers, Murderers, Robbers, Virtuoſo's; […]
1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author’s Oeconomy and Happy Life among the Houyhnhnms. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page 301:A group of young wits from the resort town of Pärnu sells cans of seawater as gag gifts; on the labels they list the high pollution levels and give medical instructions.
1989 May, Priit J. Vesilind, “The Baltic: Arena of Power”, in National Geographic, volume 175, number 5, page 632:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| wits | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Deriveds
witter · fuckwit · wit tooth · brevity is the soul of wit · witling · wit-cracker · collect one's wits · witticism · gather one's wits · forewit · dimwit · midwit · afterwit · witful · native wit · have one’s wits about one · mother wit · wit-cracking · lackwit · nitwit · scare out of one’s wits · witty · staircase wit · half-wit · witless · witcraft · wittol · inwit
Relateds
biting · lambent · cutting · acid
Synonyms
Translations (106)
fi nokkeluus (Ability to think quickly) · ru ум (intellectual ability) · cs důvtip (Ability to think quickly) · it spirito (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · pt humorístico (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · ru остря́к (A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes) · mi ngutu atamai (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · lv prāts (mind; sanity) · tr nükte (Ability to think quickly) · it spiritosaggine (A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes) · gl siso (intellectual ability) · grc ἀστεϊσμός (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · es donosura (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · it acutezza (Ability to think quickly) · eo humuro (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · lv asprātis (A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes) · fi sukkeluus (Ability to think quickly) · ru ра́зум (mind; sanity) · hy խելք (intellectual ability) · lv saprāts (mind; sanity) · it arguzia (Ability to think quickly) · ca enteniment (mind; sanity) · ko 눈치 (Ability to think quickly) · it facezia (A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes) · bg съобразителност (Ability to think quickly) · de Intellekt (intellectual ability) · gl intelecto (intellectual ability) · no vett (mind; sanity) · es gracejo (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · la facetiae (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · gl mentalidade (mind; sanity) · la ingenium (intellectual ability) · pt intelecto (intellectual ability) · de bei Sinnen (mind; sanity) · fr mot d'esprit (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · da vid (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · es divertido (A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes) · eo spritulo (A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes) · pt humor (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · it freddura (A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes) · pdt Witsichkjeit (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · fr petit malin (A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes) · gl entendemento (mind; sanity) · cs humor (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · es neguillas (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · pt agudeza (Ability to think quickly) · pt engraçado (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · es chiste espontáneo (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · it motto di spirito (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · it arguzia (intellectual ability) · ka გონება (mind; sanity) · la argūtia (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · gl siso (mind; sanity) · ar إدراك (intellectual ability) · fi sutkaus (Ability to think quickly) · oc ment (mind; sanity) · cs vtip (Ability to think quickly) · eo sprito (Ability to think quickly) · ca ment (mind; sanity) · ca divertit (A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes) · pt intelectual (intellectual ability) · it battuta (A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes) · pt sanidade (mind; sanity) · da vid (mind; sanity) · oc sen (mind; sanity) · oc èime (mind; sanity) · uk розум (mind; sanity) · it ilare (A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes) · no intellekt (intellectual ability) · it senno (mind; sanity) · ru остроу́мие (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · lv atjautība (Ability to think quickly) · de Auffassungsgabe (Ability to think quickly) · de Verstand (intellectual ability) · no forstand (intellectual ability) · it prontezza di spirito (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · de Witzbold (A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes) · lv asprātība (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · hy խելք (mind; sanity) · ar وعي (intellectual ability) · mi naho (A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes) · es listeza (Ability to think quickly) · oc esperit (mind; sanity) · pt agudez (Ability to think quickly) · es donaire (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · ro schepsis (Ability to think quickly) · it genio (Ability to think quickly) · it brio (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · it senso umoristico (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · no vidd (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · es imaginativo (A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes) · ru ум (Ability to think quickly) · pt mentalidade (mind; sanity) · la scurra (A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes) · ka გონებამახვილობა (Ability to think quickly) · de von Sinnen (mind; sanity) · bg ум (intellectual ability) · da vid (intellectual ability) · cs vtip (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · pt esperteza (Ability to think quickly) · bg остроу́мие (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · es cordura (mind; sanity) · bg разум (mind; sanity) · cs rozum (mind; sanity) · de Witz (Spoken humour, particularly that thought of quickly) · ka ჭკუა (mind; sanity)