wis

Forms

wīs (comparative wīsra, superlative wīsest)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *wīsaz (“wise, knowledgeable”).^[1][2] The adjective is shared with Old Norse víss (“certain, wise”), Old Frisian wīs, Old Saxon wīs and Old High German wīs, and Gothic has the compound 𐌿𐌽𐍅𐌴𐌹𐍃 (unweis, “ignorant”).^[2][3][4]

Orel derives it from a form in Proto-Indo-European *-s-, made to the s-stem of the root Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see, to know”), and Wiktionary similarly from Proto-Indo-European *weyd-s-ós (“knowledgeable”), from the noun *wéydos (“knowledge”).^[2][1] Etymonline instead starts from Proto-Germanic *wissaz, from a past participle Proto-Indo-European *wittos of the same root.^[5] Holthausen and Köbler put it with the verb witan (“to know”).^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first securely dated record is in the Pastoral Care, in the Hatton manuscript of 890×897: the teacher who rushes into speech, wishing ðæt he ðy wisra ðynce “that he may seem the wiser”, wounds the hearts of his hearers.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller give the sense wise, discreet, judicious, and use it of persons, of animals (the wild bee) and of things such as thought and words; it renders Latin sapiens and prudens.^[8][3] Clark Hall adds learned, sagacious and cunning, sane, prudent and experienced, and its use as a noun, "a wise man".^[9] In Beowulf it means wise, and once sound in mind.^[10] In the laws the plural wise are the wise men of the council.^[11] It lived on as English wise.^[5][1]

Timeline

• 890×897 – ðy wisra ðynce “seem the wiser” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[6][7]
• s. x med. – ne scyle nan wis man nænne mannan hatian “no wise man should hate any man” in the Old English Boethius.^[12][7]
• s. x² – ne mæg weorþan wis wer, ær he age wintra dæl in woruldrice “a man cannot become wise before he has had his share of winters in the world” in The Wanderer in the Exeter Book.^[13][8]
• s. x/xi – wīs in the Beowulf manuscript.^[14][10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. wise, discreet, judicious; learned.^[8][9][3]
2. prudent, experienced; sagacious, cunning.^[9]
3. sound in mind, sane.^[9][10]
4. (as a noun) a wise man; in the plural, the councillors.^[9][11]

Word family

• wīsdōm
• unwīs
• rihtwīs
• rihtwīsnes
• sċeadwīs
• wordwīs
• wīslīċ
• wīslīċe

Descendants

• Middle English wis (→ Scots wis; Scots wise; English wise)^[1]

Related words

• witan
• wīse
• wiss

Usage notes

A separate feminine noun wīs “manner, way”, a by-form of wīse, is listed by Bosworth and Toller, Holthausen and Köbler.^[8][4][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 467
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. wīs 1
4. ^ a b c Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 399
5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 499
7. ^ a b c Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
8. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 1239
9. ^ a b c d e Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 412
10. ^ a b c Fulk, R. D.; Bjork, Robert E.; Niles, John D., eds. (2008), Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, 4th ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press (glossary), p. s.v. wīs
11. ^ a b Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 245
12. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 296
13. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 223
14. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 344
15. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. wīs 2