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WIKTIONARY VIA KAIKKI / WIKTEXTRACT
Imported dictionary evidence
These are source reports, not reviewed *SET-U ancestry. A list of templates or numbered etymologies is not an ancestor chain. Scholarly disagreements remain in the original source text.
35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset
PARTIAL ENGLISH COVERAGE · FULL CORPUS REMAINS LOCAL2 source sections across 2 headwords matching “Whit”. These are separate from the reviewed results below.
WhitEnglish (en) · Etymology 2Source text
Shortening of the surname of Dick Whittington, London mayor who funded the rebuilding of the prison.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗whitEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
From Middle English wiȝt, wight, from Old English wiht (“wight, person, creature, being, whit, thing, something, anything”), from Proto-Germanic *wihtą (“thing, creature”) or *wihtiz (“essence, object”), from Proto-Indo-European *wekti- (“cause, sake, thing”), from *wekʷ- (“to say, tell”). Cognate with Old High German wiht (“creature, thing”), Dutch wicht, German Wicht. Doublet of wight.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗INDEPENDENT SOURCE LIBRARY
More sources for this spelling
These are spelling matches, not a claim of identical senses or agreement. Historical accounts retain their own editions and limits; none is automatically promoted into reviewed ancestry.
Mayhew–Skeat (1888)
1888; pinned HTML transcription updated October 28, 2024013
MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
adjectivecontrarian claim
candid
Open or frank in modern English, inherited through French and Latin from a family of brightness and whiteness.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nouncontrarian claim
candidate
A person seeking selection or office; ultimately the Roman office-seeker dressed in a bright white toga.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nouncontrarian claim
candor
Frankness or honest expression, historically a word for brightness, radiance, whiteness, and unstained purity.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗025
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
●
Present-Day English / Indo-European
candid
open, frank, honest; originally white in English
- DATE
- 1597–today
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Latin / Indo-European
candidus
bright white; shining; clear
- DATE
- Latin antiquity
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 2
Latin / Indo-European
candidātus
a person standing for office; the white-clad one
- DATE
- Roman antiquity
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Latin / Indo-European
candor
brightness, radiance, whiteness; favorable disposition
- DATE
- Latin antiquity
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Latin / Indo-European
candēre
to shine; glow; be white
- DATE
- Latin antiquity
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 3
035
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 2
openprobableposition text
Did candidates claim moral purity?
The whitened toga is historical and lexical. Reading it as a guaranteed moral-purity claim goes beyond what the word formation alone proves.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Did candid always mean honest?
No. The first reported English sense is white; clear, pure, fair, honest, frank, and photographic senses develop later.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 3
RANK 186GRADE Acontrarian claim
Candid was white before it was honest.
English first records candid in the white sense. Brightness and unblemished clarity later support fairness, frankness, and honest expression.
RANK 189GRADE Aranked reveal
Candor was radiance before frankness.
Latin candor and the earliest English family name brightness, whiteness, or unstained purity before modern honest expression becomes dominant.
RANK 210GRADE A−contrarian claim
A candidate was “dressed in white.”
Roman office-seekers signaled purity and visibility with a whitened toga.
040
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
No reviewed record in this collection contains “whit.” Absence describes this graph, not all of linguistic scholarship.
050
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
No reviewed record in this collection contains “whit.” Absence describes this graph, not all of linguistic scholarship.
06
SEARCH IS DISCOVERY, NOT PROOF
EVERY RESULT OPENS A PERMANENT EVIDENCE RECORD.
Matching text only locates a record. It does not raise confidence, settle a dispute, establish cognacy, or turn a source report into direct inspection. Follow the result into its citations and editorial limits.