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Wit vs Wot - What's the difference?

wit | wot |

As verbs the difference between wit and wot

is that wit is know, be aware of construed with of when used intransitively while wot is to know.

As a noun wit

is sanity.

As a preposition wit

is {{en-SoE}} an alternative spelling of lang=en.

As an interjection wot is

what (humorous misspelling intended to mimic certain working class accents.

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 ----

    wot

    English

    Etymology 1

    An extension of the present-tense form of (m) (verb) to apply to all forms.

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • (archaic) To know.
  • * 1526 , William Tyndale, trans. Bible , John XII:
    • He that walketh in the darke, wotteth not whither he goeth.
  • * 1855 , John Godfrey Saxe, Poems , Ticknor & Fields 1855, p. 121:
    • She little wots , poor Lady Anne! Her wedded lord is dead.
  • * 1866 , Algernon Charles Swinburne, "The Garden of Proserpine" in Poems and Ballads , 1st Series, London: J. C. Hotten, 1866:
    • They wot not who make thither [...].
  • * 1889 , William Morris, The Roots of the Mountains , Inkling Books 2003, p. 241:
    • Then he cast his eyes on the road that entered the Market-stead from the north, and he saw thereon many men gathered; and he wotted not what they were [...].

    Etymology 2

    From (m), in return from (etyl) (m).

    Verb

    (head)
  • (wit)

    • Etymology 3

    Representing pronunciation.

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • what (humorous misspelling intended to mimic certain working class accents )
  • * 1859', Then, '''wot with undertakers, and wot with parish clerks, and wot with sextons, and wot with private watchmen (all awaricious and all in it), a man wouldn't get much by it, even if it was so. — Charles Dickens, ''A Tale of Two Cities (Penguin 2003, p. 319)
    • Wot , no bananas? (popular slogan during wartime rationing)

    Anagrams

    * (l), (l), (l), (l), (l) ----