wit.

When a nation is beginning to emerge from barbarism, it strives to show what we call wit.

A Philosophical Dictionary 2007

This purer and more thoroughly delightful amusement comes from what we call wit.

The Sense of Beauty Being the Outlines of Aesthetic Theory George Santayana 1907

I was told of terrors of Hell which I imagined was intended to intimidate me as I was exceedingly lively, and full of a little petulant vivacity which they called wit.

Autobiography of Madame Guyon Guyon, Jeanne Marie Bouvier de La Motte, 1648-1717 1880

I was told of terrors of Hell which I imagined was intended to intimidate me as I was exceedingly lively, and full of a little petulant vivacity which they called wit.

The Autobiography of Madame Guyon Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon 1682

I grew up in SF at the time Wayne was on television and I fondly recall his wit.

Wayne Shannon: A Case Study for the Internet’s Failings? : Edward Champion’s Reluctant Habits 2006

Although not a wit himself, Mr. Dubbin was occasionally the cause of wit in others, if the practice of bubbling an innocent rustic or citizen can be called wit.

London Pride Or When the World Was Younger 1875

Although she was well-read, she lacked the delicate observation, the ingenious comparisons, the jingling of brilliant phrases or words which compose what in France is called wit.

The Happy Days of the Empress Marie Louise Arthur L��on Imbert de Saint-Amand 1867

It took some time to break the ice, but gradually she began to say things, half stories, half poetic, not out of books; things that, if said with assurance, in the city would be called wit.

The Complete Project Gutenberg Writings of Charles Dudley Warner Charles Dudley Warner 1864

It took some time to break the ice, but gradually she began to say things, half stories, half poetic, not out of books; things that, if said with assurance, in the city would be called wit.

That Fortune Charles Dudley Warner 1864

In painting an amateur, in music a connoisseur; witty at times, and with wit of a high quality, but thrifty in the expenditure of it; too wise to be known as a wit.

What Will He Do with It? — Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838