wit

Webster's Dictionary (1913)

Origin: OE. witen, pres. ich wot, wat, I know (wot), imp. wiste, AS. witan, pres. wāt, imp. wiste, wisse; akin to OFries. wita, OS. witan, D. weten, G. wissen, OHG. wizzan, Icel. vita, Sw. veta, Dan. vide, Goth. witan to observe, wait I know, Russ. vidiete to see, L. videre, Gr. …, Skr. vid to know, learn; cf. Skr. vid to find. …. Cf. History, Idea, Idol, -oid, Twit, Veda, Vision, Wise, adjective & noun, Wot.

To know; to learn. “I wot and wist alway.” Geoffrey Chaucer

☞ The present tense was inflected as follows; sing. 1st pers. wot; 2d pers. wost, or wot(t)est; 3d pers. wot, or wot(t)eth; pl. witen, or wite. The following variant forms also occur; pres. sing. 1st & 3d pers. wat, woot; pres. pl. wyten, or wyte, weete, wote, wot; imp. wuste (Southern dialect); p. pr. wotting. Later, other variant or corrupt forms are found, as, in Shakespeare, 3d pers. sing. pres. wots.

Brethren, we do you to wit [make you to know] of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia.— 2 Cor. viii. 1.

Thou wost full little what thou meanest.— Geoffrey Chaucer

We witen not what thing we prayen here.— Geoffrey Chaucer

When that the sooth in wist.— Geoffrey Chaucer

☞ This verb is now used only in the infinitive, to wit, which is employed, especially in legal language, to call attention to a particular thing, or to a more particular specification of what has preceded, and is equivalent to namely, that is to say.

Origin: AS. witt, wit; akin to OFries. wit, G. witz, OHG. wizzī, Icel. vit, Dan. vid, Sw. vett. √133. See Wit, verb

1. Mind; intellect; understanding; sense.

Who knew the wit of the Lord? or who was his counselor?— Wyclif (Rom. xi. 34).

A prince most prudent, of an excellent And unmatched wit and judgment.— William Shakespeare

Will puts in practice what wit deviseth.— Sir John Davies

He wants not wit the dander to decline.— John Dryden

2. A mental faculty, or power of the mind; — used in this sense chiefly in the plural, and in certain phrases; as, to lose one's wits; at one's wits' end, and the like. “Men's wittes ben so dull.” Geoffrey Chaucer

I will stare him out of his wits.— William Shakespeare

3. Felicitous association of objects not usually connected, so as to produce a pleasant surprise; also. the power of readily combining objects in such a manner.

The definition of wit is only this, that it is a propriety of thoughts and words; or, in other terms, thoughts and words elegantly adapted to the subject.— John Dryden

Wit which discovers partial likeness hidden in general diversity.— Samuel T. Coleridge

Wit lying most in the assemblage of ideas, and putting those together with quickness and variety wherein can be found any resemblance or congruity, thereby to make up pleasant pictures in the fancy.— John Locke

4. A person of eminent sense or knowledge; a man of genius, fancy, or humor; one distinguished for bright or amusing sayings, for repartee, and the like.

In Athens, where books and wits were ever busier than in any other part of Greece, I find but only two sorts of writings which the magistrate cared to take notice of; those either blasphemous and atheistical, or libelous.— John Milton

Intemperate wits will spare neither friend nor foe.— Sir Roger L'Estrange

A wit herself, Amelia weds a wit.— Edward Young

The five wits, the five senses; also, sometimes, the five qualities or faculties, common wit, imagination, fantasy, estimation, and memory. Chaucer. Nares.

But my five wits nor my five senses can Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee.— William Shakespeare

Synonyms: Ingenuity; humor; satire; sarcasm; irony; burlesque. — Wit, Humor. Wit primarily meant mind; and now denotes the power of seizing on some thought or occurrence, and, by a sudden turn, presenting it under aspects wholly new and unexpected — apparently natural and admissible, if not perfectly just, and bearing on the subject, or the parties concerned, with a laughable keenness and force. “What I want,” said a pompous orator, aiming at his antagonist, “is common sense.” “Exactly!” was the whispered reply. The pleasure we find in wit arises from the ingenuity of the turn, the sudden surprise it brings, and the patness of its application to the case, in the new and ludicrous relations thus flashed upon the view. Humor is a quality more congenial to the English mind than wit. It consists primarily in taking up the peculiarities of a humorist (or eccentric person) and drawing them out, as Addison did those of Sir Roger de Coverley, so that we enjoy a hearty, good-natured laugh at his unconscious manifestation of whims and oddities. From this original sense the term has been widened to embrace other sources of kindly mirth of the same general character. In a well-known caricature of English reserve, an Oxford student is represented as standing on the brink of a river, greatly agitated at the sight of a drowning man before him, and crying out, “O that I had been introduced to this gentleman, that I might save his life!” The “Silent Woman” of Ben Jonson is one of the most humorous productions, in the original sense of the term, which we have in our language.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54

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