Wit (?), n. [AS. witt, wit; akin to OFries. wit, G. witz, OHG.
wizzī, Icel. vit, Dan. vid,
Sw. vett. √133. See Wit, v.]
1. Mind; intellect; understanding; sense.
Who knew the
wit of the Lord? or who was his counselor?
Wyclif (Rom. xi.
34). A prince most prudent, of an excellent
And unmatched wit and judgment.
Shak. Will puts in practice what wit
deviseth.
Sir J.
Davies. He wants not wit the dander to
decline.
Dryden.
2. A mental faculty, or power of the mind; -- used in this sense
chiefly in the plural, and in certain phrases; as, to lose one's wits; at one's wits' end, and the like. "Men's wittes ben so dull." Chaucer.
I will stare him out
of his wits.
Shak. 3. Felicitous association of objects not usually connected, so as to produce
a pleasant surprise; also. the power of
readily combining objects in
such a manner.
The definition of wit is
only this, that it is a propriety of thoughts and words; or, in other
terms, thoughts and words elegantly adapted to the subject.
Dryden. Wit which discovers partial likeness hidden in general diversity.
Coleridge.
Wit lying
most in the
assemblage of ideas, and putting those together with quickness and variety wherein can be found any
resemblance or congruity, thereby to make up pleasant pictures in the fancy.
Locke. 4. A person of eminent sense or knowledge; a man of genius, fancy, or humor; one
distinguished for bright or amusing sayings, for repartee, and the like.
In Athens, where
books and wits were ever busier than in any other
part of Greece, I find but only
two sorts of writings which the magistrate cared to take notice of; those either blasphemous and atheistical, or libelous.
Milton.
Intemperate wits will spare neither friend nor foe.
L'Estrange.
A wit herself, Amelia weds a wit.
Young. The five wits, the five senses; also, sometimes, the five qualities or faculties, common wit, imagination, fantasy, estimation, and memory. Chaucer. Nares.
But
my five wits nor my five
senses can
Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee.
Shak. Syn. -- Ingenuity; humor; satire; sarcasm; irony; burlesque. -- Wit, Humor. Wit primarily meant mind; and now denotes the power of
seizing on some thought or occurrence, and, by a sudden turn, presenting it under aspects wholly new and unexpected -- apparently natural and admissible, if not perfectly just, and bearing on the subject, or the parties concerned, with a laughable keenness and force. "What I want,"
said a pompous orator, aiming at his antagonist, "is common sense." "Exactly!" was the whispered reply. The pleasure we find in wit arises from the ingenuity of the turn, the sudden surprise it brings, and the patness of its application to the case, in the new and ludicrous relations thus flashed upon the view. Humor is a
quality more congenial to the English mind than wit. It consists primarily in taking up the
peculiarities of a humorist (or eccentric person) and drawing them out, as
Addison did those of Sir Roger
de Coverley, so that we enjoy
a hearty, good-natured laugh at his
unconscious manifestation of whims and oddities. From this original sense the term has been
widened to embrace other sources of kindly mirth of the same general character. In a well-known caricature of English reserve, an Oxford student is represented as standing on the brink of
a river, greatly agitated at the sight of
a drowning man before him, and crying out, "O that I had been
introduced to this gentleman, that I might save
his life! The, "Silent Woman" of Ben
Jonson is one of the most
humorous productions, in the original sense of the term, which we have
in our language.
Wit (?), v. t.
& i. [inf. (To) Wit; pres. sing. Wot;
pl. Wite; imp. Wist(e); p. p. Wist; p. pr. & vb. n. Wit(t)ing. See the Note
below.]
[OE. witen,
pres. ich wot, wat,
I know (wot),
imp. wiste, AS. witan, pres. wāt, imp. wiste, wisse; akin to OFries. wita, OS. witan, D. weten, G. wissen, OHG. wizzan, Icel. vita,
Sw. veta, Dan. vide, Goth. witan to observe, wait I know, Russ.
vidiete to see, L. videre, Gr. &?;, Skr. vid to know, learn; cf. Skr. vid to find. &?;&?;&?;&?;. Cf. History, Idea, Idol, -oid, Twit, Veda, Vision, Wise,
a. & n., Wot.] To know; to learn. "I wot and wist alway."
Chaucer.
&fist; The present tense was inflected as follows; sing. 1st pers. wot; 2d pers. wost, or wot(t)est; 3d
pers. wot, or wot(t)eth; pl. witen, or wite. The following variant forms also occur; pres. sing. 1st & 3d pers. wat, woot; pres. pl. wyten,
or wyte, weete,
wote, wot; imp.
wuste (Southern dialect); p. pr. wotting.
Later, other variant or corrupt forms are found, as, in
Shakespeare, 3d pers. sing.
pres. wots.
Brethren,
we do you to wit [make you to know] of the grace of God
bestowed on the churches of Macedonia.
2 Cor.
viii. 1. Thou wost full little what thou meanest.
Chaucer.
We witen
not what thing we prayen here.
Chaucer. When that the
sooth in wist.
Chaucer. &fist; This verb is now
used only in the infinitive, to wit, which is employed, especially in legal language, to call attention to a particular thing, or to a more particular specification of what has preceded, and is equivalent to namely, that is to say.
Hear it pronounced