wit
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: wĭt
ipa: /wɪt/
rhymes: -ɪt
homophone: whit (wine–whine merger)
Forms: form: wits
Etymology: From Middle English wit, from Old English witt (“understanding, intellect, sense, knowledge, consciousness, conscience”), from Proto-West Germanic *witi, from Proto-Germanic *witją (“knowledge, reason”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“see, know”).
Cognate with Dutch wit (“knowledge”), German Witz (“joke; wit, humour”), Danish vid (“wit”), Norwegian Bokmål, Swedish vett (“wit”), Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐍅𐌹𐍄𐌹 (unwiti, “ignorance”), Latin vīdī (“see (pf.)”), Bulgarian вям (vjam, “to know”), Russian ве́дать (védatʹ, “to know”), Sanskrit विद्या (vidyā, “knowledge, wisdom”). Compare wise.
Senses: examples: text: He's gone completely out of his wits.
glosses: Sanity.
glosses: The senses.
examples: text: Where she has gone to is beyond the wit of man to say.
glosses: Intellectual ability; faculty of thinking, reasoning.
examples: text: My father had a quick wit and a steady hand.
glosses: The ability to think quickly; mental cleverness, especially under short time constraints.
examples: text: The opportunity was right in front of you, and you didn't even have the wit to take it!
text: I gif the witt, I gif the strenght, / of all thou sees, of brede & lengthe; / thou shall be wonder wise. / Myrth and Ioy to haue at will, / All thi likyng to fulfill, / and dwell in paradise.
ref: 15th c., “[The Creation]”, in Wakefield Mystery Plays; Re-edited in George England, Alfred W. Pollard, editors, The Towneley Plays (Early English Text Society Extra Series; LXXI), London: […] Oxford University Press, 1897, →OCLC, page 6, lines 174–179:
english: I give thee consciousness, I give thee strength over all thou seest, over all its breadth and length thou shalt be wondrously wise. Mirth and joy [you shall] have at will to fulfil all thy liking and dwell in paradise.
translation: I give thee consciousness, I give thee strength over all thou seest, over all its breadth and length thou shalt be wondrously wise. Mirth and joy [you shall] have at will to fulfil all thy liking and dwell in paradise.
bold_translation_offsets: 163
170
text: Wel, wel (Meander) thou art deepely read:
And hauing thee, I haue a iewell ſure:
Go on my Lord, and giue your charge I ſay,
Thy wit wil make vs Conquerors to day.
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene ii:
text: O, learn to read what silent love hath writ:
To hear with eyes belongs to love's fine wit.
ref: 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 23”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:
glosses: Intelligence; common sense.
examples: text: The best man's speech was hilarious, full of wit and charm.
text: Wit is just as much put upon—blamed for a thousand impertinences over which it would not have held for a moment its glittering shield; it is like the radiant fairy doomed to wander over earth, concealed and transformed, and only allowed on rare occasions to shine forth in its true and sparkling form. It is well that wit is an impalpable and ethereal substance, or it must long since have evaporated in indignation at that peculiarly wretched and mistaken race, its imitators.
ref: 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 152:
text: 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;[…]. Our table in the dining-room became again the abode of scintillating wit and caustic repartee, Farrar bracing up to his old standard, and the demand for seats in the vicinity rose to an animated competition.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
text: Evelyn Peters: "Don't worry, Marge. Her idea of wit is nothing more than an incisive observation humorously phrased and delivered with impeccable timing".
ref: 1996 February 4, Jennifer Crittenden, “Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield”, in The Simpsons, season 7, episode 14, production code 3F13:
text: […] the cemetery – which people of shattering wit like Sampson never tired of calling ‘the dead centre of town’ […]
ref: 1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section III, page 26:
glosses: Humour, especially when clever or quick.
examples: text: Your friend is quite a wit, isn't he?
text: Tuc[ca]. […] Can thy Author doe it impudently enough? / Hiſt[rio]. O, I warrant you, Captaine: and ſpitefully inough too; he ha's one of the moſt ouerflowing villanous wits, in Rome. He will ſlander any man that breathes; If he diſguſt him. / Tucca. I'le know the poor, egregious, nitty Raſcall; and he haue ſuch commendable Qualities, I'le cheriſh him: […]
ref: 1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act III:
text: […] here were no Gibers, Cenſurers, Backbiters, Pick-pockets, Highwaymen, Houſebreakers, Attorneys, Bawds, Buffoons, Gameſters, Politicians, Wits, ſplenetick tedious Talkers, Controvertiſts, Raviſhers, Murderers, Robbers, Virtuoſo's; […]
ref: 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author’s Oeconomy and Happy Life among the Houyhnhnms. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page 301:
glosses: A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes; someone witty.
Synonyms: repartee
Derived terms: afterwit
brevity is the soul of wit
collect one's wits
dimwit
forewit
fuckwit
gather one's wits
half-wit
have one’s wits about one
inwit
lackwit
midwit
mother wit
native wit
nitwit
scare out of one’s wits
staircase wit
wit-cracker
wit-cracking
witcraft
witful
witless
witling
witter
witticism
wittol
wit tooth
witty
Related terms: acid
biting
cutting
lambent