witan

witan¹ to know

Pronunciation

• /ˈwi.tɑn/^[1]

Forms

witan (preterite-present; third-person singular present wāt, past singular wisse, past plural wisson)^[1] Also wiotan.^[2] Northumbrian witto “I know” in the Lindisfarne gloss.^[3]

Etymology

The verb “to know” is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *witan, from Proto-Germanic *witaną (“to know”).^[1][4] It is a preterite-present verb in all the old Germanic languages: Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (witan), Old Norse vita, Old Frisian wita, Old Saxon witan and Old High German wizzan.^[4][5][2]

Its present wāt continues a Proto-Indo-European perfect, with the o-grade of the root Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see”): “I have seen” came to mean “I know”.^[4][6] The same root, in the reduced grade, is in Latin videō (“to see”).^[6][5] The strong present of the same root is continued by the verb “to blame” (homograph 2).^[4]

The second person wāst, where *wās would be expected, got its ⟨t⟩ back by analogy at an early date, as in Gothic.^[7] The present is inflected like the past of a strong verb of the first class.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is first recorded in the Vespasian Psalter gloss, added in the mid-ninth century: Psalm 68:6 has God ðu wast unwisdom minne “God, you know my folly”, over Latin “Deus tu scis insipientiam meam”.^[9][10] The sense is “to know” with a direct object.^[3] In the Pastoral Care of 890×897 Paul's counsel is given as Ne wilnien ge mare to witenne ðonne iow ðearf sie “do not wish to know more than you need”.^[11][10]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller distinguish the verb used absolutely (to be aware, to have knowledge), with an object (to know something), with a clause, and with an object and a predicate (to know someone to be something).^[3][12] The present participle witende means “knowingly, aware”, rendering Latin sciens and sentiens, and its negative “unknowing” renders nesciens.^[3] With nouns of feeling it means to feel: ege witan “to fear”, andan witan “to bear a grudge”.^[12][13] In glosses it renders Latin scire, noscere, cognoscere and sapere.^[2] Negated, it forms nāt, nyste, nyton “not know”.^[14][15]

The verb lived on as Middle English witen, now the archaic English wit and English weet.^[16][17]

Timeline

• s. ix med. – ðu wast “you know” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[9][10]
• 890×897 – to witenne “to know” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[11][10]
• s. x med. – Ic wiste þæt þu ut afaren wære “I knew that you had gone out” in the Old English Boethius.^[18][10]
• s. x³/⁴ – witto for Latin “sciam” in the Lindisfarne gloss of Luke.^[19][3]
• s. x/xi – wāt, wiste and wisse in the Beowulf manuscript.^[20][14]

Meanings

Verb

1. to know, have knowledge (of), be aware (of).^[3][14]
2. to know (a person or thing) to be so.^[12]
3. (with ege, andan) to feel (fear, a grudge).^[12][13]
4. to understand, perceive.^[2][5]

Word family

• nytan
• bewitan
• forewitan
• tōwitan

Descendants

• Middle English witen (→ English wit; English weet; Scots wit)^[1]

witan² to blame

Pronunciation

• /ˈwiː.tɑn/^[1]

Forms

wītan (strong class 1; third-person singular present wītt, past singular wāt, past plural witon)^[1]

Etymology

The verb “to blame” is inherited from Proto-Germanic *wītaną (“to see; to blame”).^[1][4] It is a strong verb with relatives in Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐍅𐌴𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (fraweitan, “to avenge”), Old Frisian wīta (“to guard”), Old Saxon wītan (“to reproach”), Old High German wīzan (“to punish, rebuke”) and Dutch wijten (“to blame”).^[21][4][5]

Kroonen derives it from the present Proto-Indo-European *wéyde- of the root Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see”), also continued in Ancient Greek εἵδομαι (eídomai, “to seem”), and makes it a relative of the preterite-present verb “to know” (homograph 1).^[4] The meaning “to blame” would have come from “to witness”, a legal sense already present in the parent language.^[4] Holthausen compares the sense development of Latin animadvertō (“to notice; to punish”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is first recorded in the Old English Boethius of Cotton Otho A. vi, of the mid-tenth century, where the worldly goods ask the Mind Hwæt witst þu, la Mod, us? “What do you lay to our charge, O Mind?”.^[18][10] The verb takes the person blamed in the dative and the charge in the accusative.^[22]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller give two senses: to see to, take heed of, guard, keep; and to lay something to a person's charge, impute.^[22] The first is rare in Old English and better recorded in early Middle English, as in He witeđ and wialdeđ alle þing “he guards and rules all things”.^[22] Holthausen begins with “to see, look, observe”, from which he derives “to ascribe” and “to accuse, blame”.^[5] In Beowulf it means to lay something to someone's charge.^[23] Kroonen lists ġewītan “to see, look; to go” under the same Germanic verb, and Köbler enters a strong verb wītan “to go away, depart, die” beside it.^[4][24]

The verb survives as English wite and Scots wyte.^[1]

Timeline

• s. x med. – Hwæt witst þu … us? “what do you blame us for?” in the Old English Boethius.^[18][10]
• s. x² – Ne wīte ic him đa womcwidas “I do not hold those evil words against him” in Genesis, in the Junius manuscript.^[25][22]
• s. x/xi – “lay to someone's charge” in the Beowulf manuscript.^[20][23]

Meanings

Verb

1. to see to, take heed of; to guard, keep.^[22]
2. to impute (something to someone), lay to a person's charge; to blame, reproach.^[22][26][23]

Word family

• ætwītan
• oþwītan
• ofwītan
• edwīt
• ġewītan

Descendants

• English wite^[1]
• Scots wyte^[1]