# wite
## English
### Pronunciation

* enPR: wīt, IPA: /waɪt/
* Rhymes: -aɪt
* Homophones: wight; white (wine–whine merger)

### Etymology 1

From Middle English wīten (“to accuse, reproach, punish, suspect”), Old English wītan (“to look, behold, see, guard, keep, impute or ascribe to, accuse, reproach, blame”), from Proto-West Germanic *wītan, from Proto-Germanic *wītaną. Connected to Old English wīte, see below.

#### Alternative forms

* wyte

#### Verb

wite (third-person singular simple present wites, present participle witing, simple past and past participle wited) (transitive, archaic or obsolete)
* (chiefly Scotland) To regard (someone) as guilty, to accuse, to blame, to fault.
* To censure (someone); to mulct, to reproach.
** 1595, Ed. Spencer [i.e., Edmund Spenser], Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, London: […] T[homas] C[reede] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, signature D3, verso:[U]niuſtly thou doeſt vvyte them all, / For that vvhich thou miſlikedſt in a fevv.
* To guard (something); to keep, to observe, preserve, protect.

### Etymology 2

From Middle English wite (“guilt, blameworthiness, blame, wrongdoing, misdeed, offense, punishment, retribution, fine, bote, customary rent”), from Old English wīte (“punishment, pain, torment”), from Proto-West Germanic *wītī, from Proto-Germanic *wītiją, from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see, find, behold”).

#### Noun

wite (plural wites)
* (obsolete outside Scotland) Blame, responsibility, guilt.
** 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros‎, London: Jonathan Cape, page 209:Nor I will not suffer mine indignation so to witwanton with fair justice as persuade me to put the wite on Witchland.
* Punishment, penalty, fine, bote, mulct.

### Etymology 3

From Middle English witen, from Old English wītan (“to see, accuse, go, depart”), from Proto-West Germanic *wītan, from Proto-Germanic *wītaną, from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see, find, behold”).

#### Verb

wite (third-person singular simple present wites, present participle witing, simple past and past participle wited)
* (obsolete or poetic) To go, go away, depart, perish, vanish

#### References

* Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

## Middle English
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈwiːt(ə)/

### Etymology 1

From Old English wīte, from Proto-West Germanic *wītī, from Proto-Germanic *wītiją.

#### Alternative forms

* wyte

#### Noun

wite (plural wites)
* punishment, retribution

##### Descendants

* English: wite
* ⇒ Yola: lotherwite

##### References

* “wīte, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

### Etymology 2
#### Adjective

wite
* Alternative form of whit

## Muna
### Etymology

From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *buʀtaq.

### Noun

wite
* earth
* soil
* land

### References

* Muna Dictionary – wite. SIL International.

## Old English
### Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *wītī, from Proto-Germanic *wītiją. Cognate with Old Frisian wīte, Old Saxon wīti, Old High German wīzi, Old Norse víti.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈwiː.te/

### Noun

wīte n (nominative plural wītu)
* punishment
* penalty, fine
* torment
* plague
** Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church
    Þæt fīfte wīte wæs cwealm on heora orfe, swā þæt on ðām lande fornēan nān orf ne belāf, buton Israheles bē ānsund ġestōd.The fifth plague was a pestilence among their livestock, such that in the land almost no livestock were left, except for those of Israel, who remained healthy.

#### Declension

Strong ja-stem:

#### Derived terms

* ānwīte (“single fine”)
* bisċopwīte (“fine payable to a bishop, a bishop's fee for visiting”)
* blōdwīte (“blood-offering”)
* dolwīte (“punishment for audacity, temerity or fool-hardiness”)
* edwīt (“disgrace”)
* feohtwīte (“penalty for fighting”)
* feohwīte (“fine for coining false money”)
* fierdwīte (“fine for evading military service”)
* fulwīte (“a full fine”)
* ġieldwīte (“fine for unpaid tax”)
* ġierdwīte (“affliction caused by a rod (used of Moses' rod)”)
* hangwīte (“penally for miscarriage of justice”)
* hellewīte (“the torments of hell”)
* hengwīte (“fine for not detaining an offender”)
* leġerwīte (“fine for unlawful cohabitation”)
* nīedwīte (“inevitable punishment”)
* sċyldwīte (“fine for a crime of violence”)
* sorgwīte (“grievous torment”)
* weardwīte (“penalty for not keeping guard”)
* wītærn (“prison”)
* wītebend (“bonds of torture or punishment”)
* wītebrōga (“tormenting dread”)
* wītefæst (“penally enslaved”)
* wītehræġl (“penitential garb, sackcloth”)
* wītehūs (“torture-house, prison, hell: amphitheatre (as place of torture and martyrdom)”)
* wītelāc (“punishment”)
* wītelēas (“without punishment or fine”)
* wīterǣden (“punishment, fine”)
* wītesċræf (“pit of torment, hell”)
* wītestenġ (“pole used for torture”)
* wītestōw (“place of torment or execution”)
* wīteswing (“scourging, punishment”)
* wītetōl (“instrument of torture”)
* wīteþēow (“person reduced to slavery by the law”)
* wītnian (“to punish”)

#### Descendants

* → Medieval Latin: wīta

## Polish
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈvi.tɛ/
* Rhymes: -itɛ
* Syllabification: wi‧te

### Participle

wite
* inflection of wity:
** neuter nominative/accusative/vocative singular
** nonvirile nominative/accusative/vocative plural

## Scots
### Verb

wite
* Alternative form of wyte

## West Frisian
### Verb

wite
* Alternative form of witte