wit
noun
[ wɪt ]
• the capacity for inventive thought and quick understanding; keen intelligence.
• "she does not lack perception or native wit"
Similar:
intelligence,
shrewdness,
astuteness,
cleverness,
canniness,
acuteness,
acuity,
sharpness,
sharp-wittedness,
sense,
good sense,
common sense,
wisdom,
sagacity,
judgement,
understanding,
acumen,
discernment,
perception,
insight,
percipience,
perspicacity,
brains,
mind,
nous,
gumption,
horse sense,
common,
savvy,
smarts,
• a natural aptitude for using words and ideas in a quick and inventive way to create humour.
• "his caustic wit cuts through the humbug"
Similar:
wittiness,
humour,
funniness,
facetiousness,
drollery,
waggishness,
repartee,
badinage,
banter,
wordplay,
raillery,
jokes,
witticisms,
quips,
puns,
Opposite:
humourlessness,
Origin:
Old English wit(t), gewit(t), denoting the mind as the seat of consciousness, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch weet and German Witz, also to wit2.
wit
verb
• have knowledge.
• "I addressed a few words to the lady you wot of"
• that is to say (used to be more specific about something already referred to).
• "the textbooks show an irritating parochialism, to wit an almost total exclusion of papers not in English"
Origin:
Old English witan, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch weten and German wissen, from an Indo-European root shared by Sanskrit veda ‘knowledge’ and Latin videre ‘see’.
