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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 LOCAL3 source sections across 1 headword matching “Wit”. These are separate from the reviewed results below.
witEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *weyd- Proto-Indo-European *wóyde Proto-Germanic *witaną Proto-Germanic *witją Proto-West Germanic *witi Old English witt Middle English wit English wit From Middle English wit, witt, wyt, from Old English witt (“mind, sanity, sense, understanding”), from Proto-West Germanic *witi, from Proto-Germanic *witją (“knowledge; reason; wit”), from Proto-Germanic *witaną (“to know”), from Proto-Indo-European *wóyde (“to know”), from *weyd- (“to see”). Cognates Cognate with Dutch wit (“knowledge”), German and Luxembourgish Witz (“joke; humour, wit”), Low German Weet (“knowledge; idea; inkling”), Yiddish וויץ (vits, “joke”), Danish vid (“wit”), Faroese and Icelandic vit (“intelligence, wits; reason, sense; knowledge; awareness, sentience”), Norwegian Bokmål and Swedish vett (“intelligence, sense, wit”), Norwegian Nynorsk vett, vit (“sense, wits”), Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐍅𐌹𐍄𐌹 (unwiti, “folly, ignorance”); also Breton gouzout (“to know”), Cornish godhvos, goffos (“to know”), Irish feadair (“to know”), Welsh gwybod (“to know”), Latin videō (“to see”), Ancient Greek οἶδ’ (oîd’), οἶδα (oîda, “to know”), Albanian vizë (“line, stripe, track; dash”), Latvian veids (“form, kind, mode, type”), Lithuanian veidas (“face; front; appearance, aspect, look”), Belarusian ве́даць (vjédacʹ, “to know”), Bulgarian вям (vjam, “to know”), Czech vědět (“to know”), Polish wiedzieć (“to know”), Russian ве́дать (védatʹ, “to know”), Serbo-Croatian vedeti, viedieti (“to know”), Slovak vedieť (“to know”), Slovene vedeti (“to know”), Ukrainian ві́дати (vídaty, “to know; to deal, manage”), Armenian գիտեմ (gitem, “I know”), գիտենալ (gitenal), գիտնալ (gitnal, “to know”), Avestan 𐬬𐬀𐬉𐬛 (vaēd, “find”), 𐬬𐬌𐬛 (vid, “know, understand”), Persian نوید (navid / nawīd, nuwēd, “invitation; annunciation; good news”), Tocharian A ime (“awareness, consciousness, memory, thought”), Tocharian B īme (“awareness, consciousness, memory, thought”), ūwe (“educated, knowledgeable, learned”), Sanskrit विद् (vid, “to know; to find; to consider as”). Compare wise.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗witEnglish (en) · Etymology 2Source text
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *weyd- Proto-Indo-European *wóyde Proto-Germanic *witaną Proto-West Germanic *witan Old English witan Middle English witen English wit From Middle English witen, woten, from Old English weotan, witan, from Proto-West Germanic *witan, from Proto-Germanic *witaną (“to know”), from Proto-Indo-European *wóyde (“to know”), from *weyd- (“to see”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian waase, wed, weet (“to know”), Saterland Frisian wíete (“to know”), West Frisian wite, witte (“to know”), Alemannic German wüsse (“to know”), Cimbrian bizzan (“to know”), Dutch and Low German weten (“to know”), German wissen (“to know”), Limburgish wéïte (“to know; to remember”), Luxembourgish wëssen (“to know”), Vilamovian wysa, wyssa (“to know”), Yiddish וויסן (visn, “to know”), Danish vide (“to know”), Elfdalian witå (“to know”), Faroese and Icelandic vita (“to know”), Jutish veer (“to know”), Norwegian Bokmål vide, vite (“to know”), Norwegian Nynorsk veta, vita, våtå (“to know”), Scanian veda (“to know”), Swedish veta (“to know”), Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (witan, “to know”); also Breton gouzout (“to know”), Cornish godhvos, goffos (“to know”), Irish feadair (“to know”), Welsh gwybod (“to know”), Latin videō (“to see”), Ancient Greek οἶδ’ (oîd’), οἶδα (oîda, “to know”), Albanian vizë (“line, stripe, track; dash”), Latvian veids (“form, kind, mode, type”), Lithuanian veidas (“face; front; appearance, aspect, look”), Belarusian ве́даць (vjédacʹ, “to know”), Bulgarian вям (vjam, “to know”), Czech vědět (“to know”), Polish wiedzieć (“to know”), Russian ве́дать (védatʹ, “to know”), Serbo-Croatian vedeti, viedieti (“to know”), Slovak vedieť (“to know”), Slovene vedeti (“to know”), Ukrainian ві́дати (vídaty, “to know; to deal, manage”), Armenian գիտեմ (gitem, “I know”), գիտենալ (gitenal), գիտնալ (gitnal, “to know”), Avestan 𐬬𐬀𐬉𐬛 (vaēd, “find”), 𐬬𐬌𐬛 (vid, “know, understand”), Persian نوید (navid / nawīd, nuwēd, “invitation; annunciation; good news”), Tocharian A ime (“awareness, consciousness, memory, thought”), Tocharian B īme (“awareness, consciousness, memory, thought”), ūwe (“educated, knowledgeable, learned”), Sanskrit विद् (vid, “to know; to find; to consider as”). Compare guide.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗witEnglish (en) · Etymology 3Source text
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, 20240112
MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
noun combining formhistorical form
-logy
A bound English word element used in formations involving discourse or expression and in names of doctrines, theories, sciences, and fields of study.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nouncontrarian claim
December
The twelfth month in the modern calendar; its inherited Latin name literally identifies it as the tenth month.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗German masculine nounhistorical form
Feind
The modern German noun for a personal, political, military, or ideological enemy or opponent. Duden derives it through Middle High German vīnt or vīant and Old High German fīand, literally the hating one; DWDS dates Old High German fīant and fījant to the eighth century and identifies the Germanic ancestor as a petrified substantivized present participle. Grimm’s dictionary independently compares Gothic fijands, Old English fēond, English fiend, Dutch vijand, and Nordic forms, while warning that its own still-deeper foam hypothesis required confirmation. The reviewed route therefore follows the inherited enemy noun to reconstructed *fi(j)and- and *fi(j)ēn-, then treats *peh₁- as proposed and stops.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗German masculine nounhistorical form
Freund
German Freund continues Middle High German vriunt and Old High German friunt. DWDS/Pfeifer, Duden, and Grimm independently analyze the inherited Germanic formation as a substantivized present participle of the verb represented by Gothic frijōn and Old English frēogan: historically a loving or favorably disposed one. The record is semantically wider than a modern close companion: the historical dictionaries also document neighbor, relative, lover, ally, supporter, patron, address, and euphemistic uses. The graph joins the High German line to the same reviewed *frijōnd- and *frī- nodes as English friend, keeps *prī- proposed, and stops.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗German masculine nouncontrarian claim
Hass
The modern German noun for intense aversion, rejection, or hostility toward a person, group, or institution. Duden traces Middle and Old High German haʒ to suffering, sorrow, and resentment and records the 1996 spelling change from Haß to Hass. DWDS/Pfeifer reports the Old High German noun from the eighth century and places it in the Germanic family of Old Saxon heti, Old English hete, Old Norse hatr, Gothic hatis, and related forms. Grimm’s DWB preserves a more complicated semantic record: hostile pursuit or action, anger expressed in deeds, ordinary hostile disposition, and even measured rivalry during friendly competition. The reviewed route reuses *hatiz- and the qualified *ḱh₂d-es- / *ḱeh₂d- comparison, then stops.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗noundossier summary
algorism
The older English word for calculation with Hindu-Arabic numerals, transmitted through French and Medieval Latin from the name al-Khwārizmī.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounhistorical form
algorithm
A finite or stepwise procedure, descended through medieval arithmetic vocabulary from the Latinized name of al-Khwārizmī.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗noun · adjectivehistorical form
arithmetic
The art or practice of counting and calculation; transmitted from Greek arithmos “number” through Latin and French.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗noundossier summary
avocado
An English reshaping of Spanish aguacate from Nahuatl āhuacatl, a word documented with both avocado and testicle senses.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗verbhistorical form
betroth
To promise in marriage; a Middle English prefixed formation built on the same historical noun that yielded truth and troth.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nouncontrarian claim
bride
A woman about to be or recently married; inherited from Old English brȳd and directly preserved inside bridegroom.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗Middle Irish noundossier summary
cais
eDIL separates two Irish headwords written cais. The first, also recorded as caise, is explicitly explained both as love and as hate; its cited passages and glossary equations range from searc and grádh "love" to miscais and mioscais "hatred", with context deciding individual readings. One Éigse line is tentatively translated so that the same visible form occurs on both sides: "my love ... is met by hatred(?)". The question mark matters. The second eDIL headword cais means "eye" and is excluded from this semantic lineage. These records establish a remarkable lexicographic opposition, not one timeless essence, a chronology from love to hate, or proof that every occurrence belongs to one historically indivisible sense. John T. Koch compares the noun with Proto-Celtic *katsi- < *kad-t/si- and a wider *kad- family, but that ancestry and its proposed Germanic comparison remain open. eDIL itself generally supplies etymologies only selectively. No manuscript pixels were directly inspected, no earliest-use or historical-frequency claim is made, and no exact pronunciation is invented.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗0212
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
*
Proto-Germanic / Indo-European
*-inga- / *-unga-
person associated with or belonging to a lineage
- DATE
- Proto-Germanic
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 0
Proto-Indo-European / Indo-European
*ghos-ti-
stranger, guest, host; person with reciprocal duties of hospitality
- DATE
- Proto-Indo-European prehistory
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 9
Proto-Germanic / Indo-European
*hatōjan-
to hate or treat with enmity
- DATE
- Proto-Germanic
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 2
Proto-Celtic / Indo-European
*katsi-
a proposed Celtic formation compared with Middle Irish cais and Old Welsh cas
- DATE
- proposed Proto-Celtic
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Proto-Indo-European / Indo-European
*leǵ-
to collect, gather; with descendants involving speaking
- DATE
- Indo-European prehistory
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 15
Proto-Indo-European / Indo-European
*peh₁-
a proposed base associated with harm, blame, suffering, or hate
- DATE
- proposed Proto-Indo-European base
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 14
Proto-Indo-European / Indo-European
*prī-
a proposed Indo-European root compared with the Germanic friend and free family
- DATE
- proposed Indo-European comparison
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 5
Proto-Germanic / Indo-European
*rēdan
condition or arrangement family also associated with counsel
- DATE
- Proto-Germanic
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 0
Proto-Germanic / Indo-European
*treuwithō
faith, loyalty, truth
- DATE
- Proto-Germanic horizon
- MATCH
- transliteration
- DOSSIERS
- 3
Proto-Indo-European / Indo-European
*ǵenh₁-
give birth; beget; produce, with derivatives for family and tribal groups
- DATE
- oldest reviewed Proto-Indo-European form
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 4
Proto-Indo-European / Indo-European
*ḱeh₂d-
a proposed base glossed with grief, pain, and hatred
- DATE
- proposed Proto-Indo-European base
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 19
Latin / Indo-European
-ista
person associated with an activity
- DATE
- Latin and Late Latin
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 0
0324
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 12
openproposedposition text
Is the deepest root *leǵ- or *sleǵ-?
The traditional *leǵ- reconstruction remains widely represented, while published scholarship argues that the gather or collect root began with *s. The graph preserves both analyses.
openboundaryposition text
Can aguacate be securely pushed deeper than āhuacatl?
Not from the reviewed sources. The institutional dictionaries reach the Nahuatl word and its historical witnesses but do not establish a deeper lexical ancestor.
openproposedposition text
Does boy securely descend from a word for ox hide?
No. American Heritage offers a possible chain through a fettered person, fetter, Latin restraint collar, and Greek ox hide; Oxford labels the origin unknown.
openproposedposition text
Does cais securely prove cognacy with the Germanic hate family?
No. The Celtic–Germanic comparison is serious enough to display, but the graph keeps it as a context link rather than a genealogical edge because formal and semantic acceptance remain unsettled.
openprobableposition text
Did English chai come from one identifiable donor language?
The modern culinary sense strongly points toward South Asian usage, but Merriam-Webster lists Turkish, Russian, Persian, Hindi, and Urdu source forms without selecting one unique donor.
openboundaryposition text
Is *lˤra the final word on the ancestry of tea?
It is the final reviewed reconstruction in this dossier, not a declaration that no deeper hypothesis exists. No unique deeper form is promoted until a competing analysis is encoded with direct evidence.
openproposedposition text
Does chess descend through šāh or through šatranj?
Merriam-Webster routes the French forms through the king-call šāh; Encyclopaedia Iranica groups English chess with descendants of the Indian-Persian-Arabic game-name caturaṅga / čatrang / šatranj.
openproposedposition text
Can the movement family be pushed securely beyond *meue-?
Not from the reviewed evidence. Etymonline publishes *meue- for the movement root, but this dossier does not promote an older form without specialist comparative review.
openprobableposition text
Does the English record begin in 1588 or the 1590s?
The reports differ slightly: Merriam-Webster gives 1588 and Etymonline gives the 1590s. Neither date proves the word was coined then.
openprobableposition text
Are fijan and hatan perfect synonyms?
They overlap, but the surviving corpus does not prove identity. In Luke 1 fijandam supplies enemies and hatandane those hating; in Luke 6 hatandans supplies enemies and fijandam those hating. Sturtevant uses their association in a formal argument without proving interchangeable semantics everywhere.
openestablishedposition text
Does the ODS Sanskrit comparison prove a direct Sanskrit-to-Danish line?
No. ODS preserves an older comparison with Sanskrit pīyati, while modern comparative work gives a reconstructed route. Neither source licenses a historical borrowing or direct line.
openprobableposition text
Can the exact change from fiende to fjende be dated to one event?
No. The records show overlapping spellings, syllable patterns, and editorial judgments rather than one recoverable switch.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 12
RANK 2GRADE Acontrarian claim
Truth began with firmness and fidelity.
Before truth centered factual correspondence, its family named what was firm, faithful, and steadfast.
RANK 5GRADE Acontrarian claim
Calculation began with a pebble in the hand.
Latin calculus was a small stone used for reckoning before calculation became abstract.
RANK 12GRADE Aranked reveal
A Turkish word is not proof of who invented the food.
English yogurt is Turkish yoğurt, probably related to yoğur- “knead”; the origin of fermented milk is a different historical question.
RANK 14GRADE Acontrarian claim
Arithmetic put the “ithm” into algorithm without becoming its ancestor.
Arithmetic carries Greek arithmos “number.” Algorithm carries al-Khwārizmī's name; arithmos influenced its spelling, not its genealogy.
RANK 17GRADE Aranked reveal
-logy never simply meant “the study of.”
The bound form’s recorded range includes expression and discourse as well as doctrine, theory, science, and study. Its trail reaches Greek logos—word, speech, account, reckoning, reason—rather than a prehistoric word meaning “science.”
RANK 20GRADE Aranked reveal
King is a kin-word, not a royal word.
English king continues Old English cyning and Germanic *kuninga-, built on the kin or lineage base *kunja-. Latin rēx, royal, and regal belong to a different root—and even “leader of the kin” overstates the disputed original Germanic sense.
RANK 21GRADE Aranked reveal
King comes from the kin family; kin does not come from king.
English kin independently continues Old English cynn and Germanic *kunja-. The royal title is a separate suffixed formation on that lineage base, so the shared letters preserve real morphology without making either modern word the parent of the other.
RANK 22GRADE Acontrarian claim
Kind is not kin with a d—and kindness did not begin as niceness.
Kind and kin descend through separate Germanic formations and meet only at the deeper birth root. The adjective first carries natural, native, fitting, and proper senses; benevolence becomes prominent through later semantic development.
RANK 23GRADE Aranked reveal
The d in kindred is an intruder—and kind is not in the word.
Kindred is kin plus a fossilized native element meaning a condition or state. One branch reaches the birth root; the other reaches a fit-together root. The modern d arrived between n and r after the compound already existed.
RANK 24GRADE Aranked reveal
Hatred is medieval—and its -red means neither red nor “more.”
Middle English assembled hate with a dying native element for a state or condition. The compound is younger than its parts; below the secure Germanic hate family, even the celebrated PIE root remains a qualified and semantically difficult proposal.
RANK 25GRADE Aranked reveal
Hate was enemy-directed action as well as feeling in Old English.
Old English hatian could mean treating as an enemy, persecuting, or injuring; Beowulf puts the verb beside hostile deeds. The deeper claim that pursuit was the first meaning remains open, and the graph says so.
RANK 26GRADE Aranked reveal
Old English hated vices and deeds as well as people.
Bosworth–Toller’s Pastoral Care examples make conduct grammatical: rulers hate their subjects’ vices, and the text distinguishes loving what enemies are from hating what they do. The historical verb therefore records directed moral and hostile judgment, not only an inward emotion label.
045
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
historical grammar15 CLAIM LINKS
A Gothic Grammar with Selections for Reading and a Glossary — hatan and hatjan
Wilhelm Braune · translated and edited by Gerhard H. Balg / 1895
source titleAUDIT EVERY USE ↗digital scholarly edition9 CLAIM LINKS
Heliand Cgm 25 transcription after Schmeller 1830 with Sievers 1878 verse numbering
Johann Andreas Schmeller · Eduard Sievers · Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe / 1830
source titleAUDIT EVERY USE ↗editorial reference7 CLAIM LINKS
Muscle and Mussel — Homophones with More Than One Syllable
Merriam-Webster Editors / 2026
source titleAUDIT EVERY USE ↗editorial reference4 CLAIM LINKS
9 Financial Words With Surprising Origins
Merriam-Webster Editors / 2026
source titleAUDIT EVERY USE ↗digitized primary source3 CLAIM LINKS
ONP manuscript record — Holm perg 15 4° with folio 89v scan
Sprogsamlinger · University of Copenhagen / 1200
source titleAUDIT EVERY USE ↗0512
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
DIRECTLY INSPECTEDmanuscript
Beowulf manuscript, Heorot filled with friends
frēond / frēond / late 10th or early 11th century
Cotton MS Vitellius A XV, folio 152r — Electronic Beowulf facsimilereporting source / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDmanuscript
Holm perg 15 4° folio 89v
hata / hata / c1200
ONP manuscript record — Holm perg 15 4° with folio 89v scanreporting source / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDprinted book
The first edition of the Académie française dictionary prints SINCERE as a headword and opens with the senses true and frank.
sincère / sincere / 1694
Le dictionnaire de l'Académie française. Tome 2 (M–Z), première éditionreporting source / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDprinted book
John Harris’s Lexicon technicum prints ALGEBRA as a headword and identifies it as an analytic art concerned with equations.
algebra / algebra / 1704
Lexicon technicum: or, an universal English dictionary of arts and sciencesreporting source / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDprinted book
John Harris’s Lexicon technicum prints DECIMAL in the head phrase DECIMAL Fraction and begins its mathematical definition.
decimal / decimal / 1704
Lexicon technicum: or, an universal English dictionary of arts and scienceswitness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDprinted book
John Harris’s Lexicon technicum prints ETYMOLOGY as a headword and defines it as the part of grammar concerned with words’ origins and true signification.
etymology / etymology / 1704
Lexicon technicum: or, an universal English dictionary of arts and sciencesreporting source / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexical corpus record
Psalm, people who hate without cause
fēogan / fēogan / Old English, source-reported
Bosworth–Toller Anglo-Saxon Dictionary — FEÓGANreporting source / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexical corpus record
Gustav I’s registratur, friendship-with-enemies clause
fiande / fiände / fiende / 1521
Svenska Akademiens ordbok — FIENDEreporting source / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexical corpus record
Calfa aggregation of historical Armenian dictionary witnesses
ստոյգ / ստոյգ / Classical Armenian lexical tradition
Ստոյգ, ուգաց — Enriched Dictionaries of Armenianreporting source / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexical corpus record
Graff lexical record aligned with Latin insequamur
haʒʒēn / haʒʒōn / hassen / Old High German record, source-reported
Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm — hassenreporting source / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexical corpus record
Graff lexical record aligned with Latin insequuntur
haʒʒēn / haʒʒōn / hassen / Old High German record, source-reported
Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm — hassenreporting source / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexical corpus record
Rule text, infinitive with one’s own will
fīēn / fīēn / eighth- or ninth-century Alemannic manuscript; source-reported
Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch — fîênreporting source / OPEN RECORD ↗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.