wit

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“
And dull wit is un chiste alemán ` a German joke. '

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Definitions (40)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (12)

  1. noun The natural ability to perceive and understand; intelligence.
  2. noun Keenness and quickness of perception or discernment; ingenuity. Often used in the plural: living by one's wits.
  3. noun Sound mental faculties; sanity: scared out of my wits.
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Examples

  • And dull wit is un chiste alemán ` a German joke. ' —  VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XVIII No 3
  • "Vidal's intelligence, pace Wolcott, does not ` curdle 'on television and his quick mind -- prejudiced in many ways but still quick and clear -- buttressed by a delightfully ironic wit, is just what the American public needs ...." —  VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol VIII No 4
  • The manner in which his characters use puns lends support to the contention that the function of verbal wit is to afford a safe outlet for repressed impulses. —  VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol VII No 1
  • Peter Porcupine is one of those writers who attempt to deal in wit -- and to bear down every Republican principle by satire -- but he miserably fails in both, for his wit is as stale as his satire, and his satire as insipid as his wit. —  Priestley in America 1794-1804
  • Mother-wit, a favorite expression, 404, 405. —  Ralph Waldo Emerson
 

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Words tagged wit

sarcasm

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Wit has been looked up 532 times, favorited 4 times, listed 27 times, and commented on 8 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

humour ·  courage ·  wisdom ·  genius ·  intellect ·  beauty ·  simplicity ·  eloquence ·  poetry ·  strength ·  enthusiasm
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (6)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English, from Old English; see weid- in Indo-European roots.
  2. Middle English, from Old English witan; see weid- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (4)

  1. A preterit-present verb whose forms have been much confused and misused in modern English, in which, except in the set phrase to wit, it is now used only archaically; early modern English also weet, wete, from Middle English weten, witen (present 1st person wot, wat, 2d person wost, wast, 3d person wot, woot, wat (also 1st person wite, 2d person witest, 3d person witeth, wites, witez, contr. wit), plural witeth, weteth (subjunctive wite, witen), preterit wist, wiste, wuste, sometimes by assimilation wisse, present participle witand, wittand), from Anglo-Saxon witan (present indicative 1st person wāt, 2d person wāst, 3d person wāt, plural witon—an old preterit used as present; preterit wiste, plural wiston), = Old Saxon witan (present indicative wēt) = OFries. wita, weta (present wēt) = Dutch weten (present weet, preterit wist, past participle geweten) = Low German weten = Old High German wizzan, Middle High German wizzen, German wissen, know (present 1 weiss, 2 weisst, 3 weiss, plural wissen, preterit wusste, past participle gewusst), = Icelandic vita (present veit, preterit vissa, past participle vitathr) = Swedish veta (present vet, preterit visste, past participle vetat) = Danish vide (present veed, preterit vidste, past participle vidst) = Gothic (Moesogothic) witan (present wait, preterit wissa, past participle not found), know: the infinitive witan, with short vowel, and sense ‘know,’ being a later form and sense, developed from the preterit and subjunctive of witan, preterit *wāt, see, the present wāt, know, being orig. this preterit *wāt, saw, ‘I have seen’ (see wite); Teutonic √ wit, see, = Old Bulgarian vidieti = Servian vidjeti = Bohemian widĕti = Russian vidietĭ, see, = Latin vīdēre, see, = Greek ἰδεῑν, see (perfect ο̄)δα, I know, = English wot), = Sanskrit √ vid, see, perceive. From the verb wit are ult. English wit, n., wit, wise, wise (guise, disguise), wise, wiss, wisdom, etc., witch, wick, wicked, wiseacre, iwis, wis, wis, witness, witter, witterly, wizard, etc. (see also wite, wite); from the L. vīdēre are ult. English visage, vision, visit, visual, etc. (see under vision); from the Greek, idea, idol, idolon, eidolon, etc., and the element -eid- in kaleidoscope, -id in the termination -oid, etc.
  2. from Middle English wit, wyt (plural wittes), from Anglo-Saxon wit, knowledge, = Old Saxon *wit in comp. firewit, curiosity, = OFries. wit = Middle Low German wife, wete = Old High German wizzī, Middle High German witze, German witz, knowledge, understanding, wisdom, = Icelandic vit = Swedish vett = Danish vid, wit, knowledge; cf. Gothic (Moesogothic) un-wits, without understanding, foolish, un-witi, ignorance, foolishness; from the verb.
  3. Prob. another use, and certainly now regarded as another use, of wit, n.; cf. spirit, a person of lively mind or energy, from spirit, liveliness, energy; witness, a person who has knowledge, from witness, knowledge. But wit as applied to a person may in part represent, as it may phonetically descend from, the Middle English *wit, wet, wite, weote, from Anglo-Saxon wita, weota, also gewita, a man of knowledge, an adviser, counselor, = Old French wita, a witness, = Old High German wizo, a witness: literally ‘one who knows,’ with formative a- (-an) of agent, from witan, know: see wit, v. This Anglo-Saxon wita appears in the historical term witenagemot, Anglo-Saxon witena gemōt, ‘wits,’ moot. moot of counselors,’ a council, parliament.
  4. from wit, n.
 

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/wɪt/
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