wit

Meanings

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.
• A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes; someone witty.

Verb

• Know, be aware of .

Origin

• 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 weet, German Witz, Danish vid, Swedish vett, Norwegian Bokmål vett, Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐍅𐌹𐍄𐌹 ("ignorance"), Latin videō ("see"), Bulgarian ви́дя, Russian ви́деть, Sanskrit विद्या. Compare wise.
• From Middle English witen, from Old English witan, from Proto-West Germanic *witan, from Proto-Germanic *witaną, from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- ("see, know").
• Cognate with Icelandic vita, Dutch weten, German wissen, Swedish veta, and Latin videō ("I see"). Compare guide.
• From with.