wit
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl), from (etyl) . Compare (m).
Noun
(
en noun)
Sanity.
-
The senses.
Intellectual ability; faculty of thinking, reasoning.
-
The ability to think quickly; mental cleverness, especially under short time constraints.
-
Intelligence; common sense.
-
Humour, especially when clever or quick.
-
*
, title=(
The Celebrity), chapter=8
, passage=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;
A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes; someone witty.
-
Synonyms
* See also
Derived terms
* brevity is the soul of wit
* collect one's wits
* gather one's wits
* have one’s wits about one
* inwit
* mother wit
* native wit
* scare out of one’s wits
* witcraft
* witful
* witless
* witling
* witter
* wittol
* witticism
See also
(type of humor)
* acid
* biting
* cutting
* lambent
Etymology 2
From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) . Compare (m).
Verb
(
head)
(ambitransitive, chiefly, archaic) Know, be aware of .
- You committed terrible actions — to wit , murder and theft — and should be punished accordingly.
- They are meddling in matters that men should not wit of.
* 1849 , , St. Luke the Painter , lines 5–8
- but soon having wist
- How sky-breadth and field-silence and this day
- Are symbols also in some deeper way,
- She looked through these to God and was God’s priest.
Conjugation
{,
, -
, valign="top" ,
{, class="prettytable"
, -
! Infinitive
, to wit
, -
! Imperative
, wit
, -
! Present participle
, witting
, -
! Past participle
, wist
, }
, valign="top" ,
{, class="prettytable"
, -
!
! Present indicative
! Past indicative
, -
! First-person singular
, I wot
, I wist
, -
! Second-person singular
, thou wost, wot(test) (archaic); you wot
, thou wist(est) (archaic), you wist
, -
! Third-person singular
, he/she/it wot
, he/she/it wist
, -
! First-person plural
, we wit(e)
, we wist
, -
! Second-person plural
, ye wit(e) (archaic); you wit(e)
, ye wist (archaic), you wist
, -
! Third-person plural
, they wit(e)
, they wist
, }
, }
Usage notes
* As a preterite-present verb, the third-person singular indicative form is not .
Derived terms
* to wit
* unwitting
* witness
Etymology 3
From English with.
