# wit

Pronunciation: say "WIT" /wɪt/

## Noun

1. Humor, particularly the kind that shows cleverness or quickness of mind.
   - Simple: A clever, quick kind of humor that makes people laugh.
   - _The screenplay's wit kept the audience laughing without a single cheap gag._
   - _She deflected the reporter's question with characteristic wit._
2. The ability to think and reason well, especially quickly; intelligence or good sense, often in the plural.
   - Simple: Being clever and sensible, and able to think fast.
   - _When the boat began taking on water, the captain kept her wits about her and calmly handed out life jackets._
   - _Street vendors survive on wit, reading each customer in seconds._
3. Sanity; soundness of mind.
   - Simple: A healthy mind that thinks clearly and normally.
   - _Months alone at the lighthouse nearly cost the keeper his wits._
   - _Frightened out of her wits, she could not recall her own address._
4. A person who tells funny anecdotes or makes clever, amusing remarks.
   - Simple: A person who is funny and clever and often makes other people laugh.
   - _Oscar Wilde was celebrated as the sharpest wit of his generation._
   - _In his small town my grandfather was known as a wit, and people still repeat his one-liners at the barbershop._

## Preposition

5. Pronunciation spelling of with: the preposition as some American speakers say it, with a plain t in place of the final th. *(dialectal, US)* — Pronunciation spelling of with.
   - Simple: Pronunciation spelling of with: how with sounds when the th at the end is said like t.
   - _"Stay wit me, kid," the old trainer muttered between rounds._
   - _Leaning over the counter, the cook asked, "You want that wit onions or plain?"_

## Verb

6. To know or be aware of something; without a direct object, it takes of. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: To know something or to be aware of it.

## Noun

7. The senses; the bodily faculties of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: The senses of the body, such as sight, hearing, and touch.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–4, 7** — Old English witt ("understanding, intellect, sense, knowledge") became Middle English wit. It goes back through Proto-Germanic *witją ("knowledge, reason") to *weyd- ("see, know"), a Proto-Indo-European root. German Witz ("joke, wit") and Sanskrit vidyā ("knowledge") are relatives. Compare also English wise.
**Meaning 6** — From Middle English witen, from Old English witan ("to know"), from Proto-Germanic *witaną, from the Proto-Indo-European root *weyd- ("see, know"). It is related to German wissen ("to know") and Latin videō ("I see"); compare guide.
**Meaning 5** — From with.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/wit (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).