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Whimsy vs Wit - What's the difference?

whimsy | wit |

As a noun whimsy

is a quaint and fanciful idea a whim playfully odd behaviour.

As a verb whimsy

is to fill with whimsies or whims; to make fantastic; to craze.

whimsy

English

Alternative forms

* whimsey

Noun

(en-noun)
  • A quaint and fanciful idea. A whim. Playfully odd behaviour.
    • The whimsies of poets and painters. — Ray.
    Men's folly, whimsies , and inconstancy. — Swift.
    Mistaking the whimseys of a feverish brain for the calm revelation of truth. — Bancroft.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2012 , date=May 27 , author=Nathan Rabin , title=TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “New Kid On The Block” (season 4, episode 8; originally aired 11/12/1992) , work=The Onion AV Club citation , page= , passage=It’s a lovely sequence cut too short because the show seems afraid to give itself over to romance and whimsy and wistfulness when it has wedgie jokes to deliver. }}
  • An impulsive, illogical or capricious character.
  • (mining) A whim.

    • Verb

  • To fill with whimsies or whims; to make fantastic; to craze.
  • * J. Fletcher
    • To have a man's brain whimsied with his wealth.

    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.

    Preposition

    (head)
  • (en-SoE)

    • Anagrams

    * English irregular verbs English terms with homophones ----