- knowing; aware; conscious.
- North England. knowledge.
Origin of witting
- Archaic. to know.
- to wit, that is to say; namely: It was the time of the vernal equinox, to wit, the beginning of spring.
Origin of wit2
Related Words for wittingpremeditated, willful, calculated, voluntary, brilliant, sophisticated, perceptive, intelligent, insightful, wise, down-to-earth, shrewd, logical, practical, judicious, sane, rational, sober, prudent, astute
Examples from the Web for witting
Historical Examples of witting
But Charles, proceeding, could see in this figure only the witting cause of all the trouble.Angela's Business
Henry Sydnor Harrison
To all this problem, vexing so many generations, the clear and witting touch of Lincoln's sacrificial penitence is the master key.Abraham Lincoln's Cardinal Traits;
Clark S. Beardslee
I had my reasons––good ones––I––came back to confess to the––un––un––witting––killing of my cousin, Richard.The Eye of Dread
Spain arrogated to herself unlimited power over the nations she had founded, witting not that they were nations.Ponce de Leon
This, however, cannot be expected till they see clearly that foreign iron-masters are witting to co-operate.Life's Handicap
- deliberate; intentionala witting insult
- aware; knowing
- the talent or quality of using unexpected associations between contrasting or disparate words or ideas to make a clever humorous effect
- speech or writing showing this quality
- a person possessing, showing, or noted for such an ability, esp in repartee
- practical intelligence (esp in the phrase have the wit to)
- Scot and Northern English dialect information or knowledge (esp in the phrase get wit of)
- archaic mental capacity or a person possessing it
- obsolete the mind or memory
Word Origin for wit
- archaic to be or become aware of (something)
- to wit that is to say; namely (used to introduce statements, as in legal documents)
Word Origin for wit
Word Origin and History for witting
"aware," mid-14c. (implied in wittingly), present participle adjective from wit (v.).
"mental capacity," Old English wit, more commonly gewit, from Proto-Germanic *witjan (cf. Old Saxon wit, Old Norse vit, Danish vid, Swedish vett, Old Frisian wit, Old High German wizzi "knowledge, understanding, intelligence, mind," German Witz "wit, witticism, joke," Gothic unwiti "ignorance"), from PIE *woid-/*weid-/*wid- "to see," metaphorically "to know" (see vision). Related to Old English witan "to know" (source of wit (v.)). Meaning "ability to make clever remarks in an amusing way" is first recorded 1540s; that of "person of wit or learning" is from late 15c. For nuances of usage, see humor.
A witty saying proves nothing. [Voltaire, Diner du Comte de Boulainvilliers]
Wit ought to be five or six degrees above the ideas that form the intelligence of an audience. [Stendhal, "Life of Henry Brulard"]
"know," Old English witan "to know," from Proto-Germanic *witanan "to have seen," hence "to know" (cf. Old Saxon witan, Old Norse vita, Old Frisian wita, Middle Dutch, Dutch weten, Old High German wizzan, German wissen, Gothic witan "to know"); see wit (n.). The phrase to wit, almost the only surviving use of the verb, is first recorded 1570s, from earlier that is to wit (mid-14c.), probably a loan-translation of Anglo-French cestasavoir, used to render Latin videlicet (see viz.).
Idioms and Phrases with witting
see at one's wit's end; have one's wits about one; live by one's wits; scare out of one's wits; to wit.