witness

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈwɪt.nəs/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English witnesse, inherited from Old English witnes (“knowledge; testimony; a witness”),^[2][3][4] formed from wit and -ness.^[2][3][5] Compare Old High German giwiznessi and Old Norse vitni.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Knowledge, understanding (now obsolete), testimony or evidence, and one who gives evidence: about 950 in the OED and Barnhart, in the Lindisfarne Gospels.^[6][3] Old English gewitnes glosses Latin testimonium in Ælfric.^[2]

Semantic evolution

A person present at a transaction so as to testify to it is from before 995.^[6] Something that serves as evidence, as in as witness, is from before 1325, in Cursor Mundi.^[3] In Christian use (late 14th century) it translates Greek martys, the source of martyr.^[2] The verb, to bear witness to, is from about 1300,^[3][2] to sign a document to confirm it from the early 14th century,^[2] and to see something happen from 1582.^[3][2] The courtroom witness stand is from 1853.^[2] In Scotland a witness was formerly a sponsor at a baptism.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 950 – knowledge; testimony; one who testifies.^[6][3]
• a. 995 – one present to attest a transaction.^[6]
• c. 1300 – verb, to testify.^[3][2]
• early 14th century – to sign as a witness.^[2]
• late 14th century – Christian witness.^[2]
• 1582 – to see, observe.^[3]
• 1853 – witness stand.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person who sees an event and can describe it.
2. A person who gives evidence in a court.
3. A person who signs a document to confirm that another person's signature is genuine.
4. Evidence or proof: bear witness to.
5. A public statement of religious faith.

Verb

1. To see an event happen.
2. To sign a document as a witness.
3. To be the time or place of an event: the 1990s witnessed great changes.

Word family

• witnesser
• witnessable
• eyewitness
• earwitness
• character witness
• expert witness
• Jehovah's witness
• witness box

Related words

• wit
• wise
• martyr

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 i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d 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)