different between wit vs swot
wit
English
Pronunciation
- enPR: w?t, IPA(key): /w?t/
- Rhymes: -?t
- Homophone: whit (in accents with the wine-whine merger)
Etymology 1
From Middle English wit, from Old English witt (“understanding, intellect, sense, knowledge, consciousness, conscience”), from Proto-West Germanic *witi, from Proto-Germanic *witj? (“knowledge, reason”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“see, know”).
Cognate with Dutch weet, German Witz, Danish vid, Swedish vett, Norwegian Bokmål vett, Gothic ???????????????????????? (unwiti, “ignorance”), Latin vide? (“see”), Russian ??????? (vídet?). Compare wise.
Noun
wit (countable and uncountable, plural wits)
- (now usually in the plural, plural only) Sanity.
- (obsolete usually in the plural) The senses.
- Intellectual ability; faculty of thinking, reasoning.
- The ability to think quickly; mental cleverness, especially under short time constraints.
- Intelligence; common sense.
- 1460-1500, The Towneley Plays?
- I give the wit, I give the strength, of all thou seest, of breadth and length; thou shalt be wonder-wise, mirth and joy to have at will, all thy liking to fulfill, and dwell in paradise.
- 1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 23[1]:
- O, learn to read what silent love hath writ:
- To hear with eyes belongs to love's fine wit.
- 1460-1500, The Towneley Plays?
- Humour, especially when clever or quick.
- 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 37:
- ...the cemetery—which people of shattering wit like Sampson never tired of calling ‘the dead centre of town’...
- 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 37:
- A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes; someone witty.
Synonyms
- (intellectual ability): See also Thesaurus:intelligence
Derived terms
Translations
See also
(type of humor):
- acid
- biting
- cutting
- lambent
Etymology 2
From Middle English witen, from Old English witan, from Proto-West Germanic *witan, from Proto-Germanic *witan?, from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“see, know”).
Cognate with Icelandic vita, Dutch weten, German wissen, Swedish veta, and Latin vide? (“I see”). Compare guide.
Verb
wit (see below for this verb’s conjugation)
- (transitive, intransitive, chiefly archaic) Know, be aware of (constructed with of when used intransitively).
- 1611, King James Version, Exodus 2:3–4:
- And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.
- 1849, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, St. Luke the Painter, lines 5–8
- but soon having wist
- How sky-breadth and field-silence and this day
- Are symbols also in some deeper way,
- She looked through these to God and was God’s priest.
- 1611, King James Version, Exodus 2:3–4:
Usage notes
- As a preterite-present verb, the third-person singular indicative form is not wits but wot; the plural indicative forms conform to the infinitive: we wit, ye wit, they wit.
- To wit is now defective because it can only be used in the infinitive.
Conjugation
Derived terms
- bewit
- to wit
- unwitting
- witness
Translations
Etymology 3
From with.
Pronunciation
- (Southern American English) (before consonants) IPA(key): /w?t/, (before yod) /w?t?/
Preposition
wit
- (Southern US) Pronunciation spelling of with.
Anagrams
- Tiw, Twi, twi-
Afrikaans
Etymology
From Dutch wit, from Middle Dutch wit, from Old Dutch *wit, from Proto-Germanic *hwittaz.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /v?t/
Adjective
wit (attributive witte, comparative witter, superlative witste)
- white
Balinese
Noun
wit
- tree
- Wénten wit poh akéh ring Nagara.
- There are many mango trees in Nagara.
- Wénten wit poh akéh ring Nagara.
Belizean Creole
Preposition
wit
- Alternative form of wid
References
- Crosbie, Paul, ed. (2007), Kriol-Inglish Dikshineri: English-Kriol Dictionary. Belize City: Belize Kriol Project, p. 374.
Dutch
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /??t/
- Hyphenation: wit
- Rhymes: -?t
Etymology 1
From Middle Dutch wit, from Old Dutch *wit, from Proto-Germanic *hwittaz. The geminate is unexpected as the usual Proto-Germanic form is *hw?taz, from Proto-Indo-European *?weytos (“shine; bright”). The geminate is sometimes explained as being the result of Kluge's law, thus from a pre-Germanic *kweyd-nos.
Adjective
wit (comparative witter, superlative witst)
- white
- (chiefly Surinam) having a white skin colour, light-skinned (see usage note)
- (Surinam) having a relatively light skin colour
- legal
- pure, untainted
- (archaic) clear-lighted, not dark at all
Usage notes
Recently, wit has come to be used in continental Dutch by some (associated with social justice movements) to refer to a specific skin colour, i.e. to light-skinned people of apparent mostly European descent. Traditionally, the adjective blank has been used there for this purpose, and this usage is by far the most widespread in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Inflection
Synonyms
- blank
Antonyms
- zwart
Derived terms
- witte dovenetel, witte klaver, witwassen
Related terms
- wijting
Noun
wit n (plural witten, diminutive witje n)
- (uncountable) white (color)
- (archaic) (short for doelwit (“goal, target, the white in a bullseye”))
- (slang) cocaine
- 2011, Esther Schenk, Straatwaarde, Luitingh-Sijthoff B.V., ?ISBN.
- 2014, Helen Vreeswijk, Overdosis, Unieboek | Het Spectrum, ?ISBN.
- 2011, Esther Schenk, Straatwaarde, Luitingh-Sijthoff B.V., ?ISBN.
Derived terms
- eiwit
Descendants
- Afrikaans: wit
Verb
wit
- first-, second- and third-person singular present indicative of witten
- imperative of witten
See also
Etymology 2
From Middle Dutch wit. Ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *witi, from Proto-Germanic *witj? (“knowledge, reason”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“see, know”). Related to weten (“to know”), wis (“knowledge”) and wijs (“wise”). Cognate with English wit, German Witz.
Noun
wit n (plural witten, diminutive witje n)
- (archaic) ability to think and reason
- (archaic) knowledge
Related terms
- wittig, wittigen, wittiger, verwittigen
Anagrams
- Twi
Gothic
Romanization
wit
- Romanization of ????????????
Javanese
Noun
wit
- tree
- Akèh wit pelem ing Semarang.
- There are many mango trees in Semarang.
- Akèh wit pelem ing Semarang.
Louisiana Creole French
Etymology
From French huit.
Numeral
wit
- eight
Mauritian Creole
Etymology
From French huit.
Numeral
wit
- eight
Middle Dutch
Etymology
From Old Dutch *wit, from Proto-Germanic *hwittaz. The long-vowel variant wijt is from Old Dutch w?t, from Proto-West Germanic *hw?t, from Proto-Germanic *hw?taz.
Adjective
wit
- white
- clean
- pale (of skin)
Inflection
This adjective needs an inflection-table template.
Alternative forms
- wijt
Descendants
- Dutch: wit
- Limburgish: wiet
Further reading
- “wit”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
- Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929) , “wit (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, ?ISBN, page I
Middle English
Alternative forms
- wyt, witt
Etymology
from Old English wit (“we two”), from Proto-West Germanic *wit, from Proto-Germanic *wet. Compare the first-person plural pronoun we.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /wit/
Pronoun
wit (accusative unk, genitive unker, possessive determiner unker)
- (Early Middle English) First-person dual pronoun: we twain, the two of us.
See also
References
- “wit, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 11 May 2018.
North Frisian
Etymology
From Old Frisian hw?t, from Proto-West Germanic *hw?t, from Proto-Germanic *hw?taz. Compare West Frisian wyt.
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /v?t/
Adjective
wit
- (Sylt) white
Old English
Etymology
From Proto-West Germanic *wit, from Proto-Germanic *wet, from Proto-Indo-European *wed-, a suffixed form of *wey- (see w?). Cognate with North Frisian wat, Old Norse vit, Gothic ???????????? (wit), and Lithuanian vèdu.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /wit/
Pronoun
wit (personal)
- we two; nominative dual of i?
Old French
Etymology
Spelling variant of uit
Numeral
wit
- eight
Old High German
Etymology
From Proto-Germanic *w?daz, whence also Old Saxon w?t, Old English w?d and Old Norse víðr.
Adjective
w?t
- wide
Descendants
- Middle High German: w?t
- Central Franconian: weck
- German: weit
- Luxembourgish: wäit
- Yiddish: ?????? (vayt)
Old Saxon
Etymology
From Proto-West Germanic *wit, from Proto-Germanic *wet. Accusative from Proto-Germanic *unk, dative from *unkiz.
Pronoun
wit
- we two; nominative dual of ik
Declension
Tok Pisin
Etymology
From English wheat.
Noun
wit
- wheat
wit From the web:
- what with
- what with the elk & elk guys hair
- what withholding should i claim
- what withdrawal can you die from
- what witch hazel good for
- what withdraw mean
- what witty means
- what witcher character are you
swot
English
Alternative forms
- swat
Etymology
From a dialectal English word, from Middle English swot, swat, from Old English sw?t (“perspiration; sweat”), from Proto-Germanic swait? (“sweat”). More at sweat.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /sw?t/
- (General American) IPA(key): /sw?t/
- Homophone: swat
- Rhymes: -?t
Verb
swot (third-person singular simple present swots, present participle swotting, simple past and past participle swotted)
- (intransitive, slang, Britain) To study with effort or determination (object of study indicated by "up on").
- You should swot up on your French before travelling to Paris.
- Synonym: cram
Derived terms
Translations
See also
- hit the books
Noun
swot (plural swots)
- (slang, Britain) One who swots.
- 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 23:
- He liked Tom all right... Sampson and Bullock he could do without, however. Especially Sampson, who was too much of a grammar-school-type swot ever to be quite the thing.
- 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 23:
- (slang, Britain) Work.
- (slang, Britain) Vigorous study at an educational institution.
- (Can we add an example for this sense?)
Translations
Anagrams
- OTWs, Stow, TOWs, Tows, ow'st, stow, tows, twos, wost, wots
Saterland Frisian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /sw?t/
Adjective
swot
- black
swot From the web:
- what swot analysis
- what swot analysis means
- what swot analysis is used for
- what swot mean
- what swot analysis is important in e-commerce
- what swot analysis do
- what swot is
- what swot in business
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