wisdom

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈwɪz.dəm/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English wisdom, inherited from Old English wīsdōm,^[2][3][4] from Old English wīs (“wise”) + -dōm (“-dom, condition”) (see wise and -dom).^[2][4][5] It is a common Germanic compound: compare Old Saxon wīsdōm, Old High German wīstuom (German Weistum “legal sentence, precedent”) and Old Norse vísdómr.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

About 725, in Beowulf.^[2] Old English wīsdōm meant knowledge, learning and experience, good judgment in worldly affairs, and also spiritual truth.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

Wisdom personified, almost always as a woman, and wisdom as an attribute of Christ are both from about 888.^[6] Knowledge, especially of a high or abstruse kind, learning, is from about 950, a sense Hoad marks obsolete.^[6][3] Wisdom has been paired with wit since about 1200,^[4] and your wisdom was a respectful form of address in the 15th century.^[4][6] Ironic in his wisdom is from 1852.^[6] The wisdom tooth is so called by 1848, earlier teeth of wisdom (1660s) and wit-tooth (about 1600),^[4][2] a loan translation of Latin dentes sapientiae, itself after Greek sōphronistēres, used by Hippocrates, because they appear at about 17 to 25, when a person reaches adulthood.^[4][2] In Scots and northern dialect to pull one's wisdom teeth meant to make someone less self-assured.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English wīsdōm, in Beowulf.^[2]
• c. 888 – Wisdom personified.^[6]
• c. 1200 – paired with wit.^[4]
• 15th century – your wisdom, as a title.^[4]
• 1660s – teeth of wisdom.^[4]
• 1848 – wisdom tooth.^[4][2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The ability to judge rightly what is true, right or lasting, using knowledge, experience and insight.
2. Good sense; sound judgment.
3. Accumulated learning or knowledge, or the wise teachings of the past: conventional wisdom.
4. A wise course of action: I question the wisdom of this plan.

Word family

• wisdomless
• conventional wisdom
• wisdom of Solomon
• wisdom tooth

Related words

• wise
• wit
• -dom
• wizard
• vision

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)