weet

English

Etymology

From Middle English weten, a Middle English variant of witen (“to know”). More at wit.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wiːt/
• Rhymes: -iːt

Verb

weet (third-person singular simple present weets, present participle weeting, simple past and past participle weeted)

1. (intransitive, archaic) To know.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. , part II (books IV–VI), London: [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 25, page 87:

     But Glauce, ſeeing all that chaunced there, / VVell vveeting hovv their errour to aſſoyle, / Full glad of ſo good end, to them drevv nere, / And her ſalevved vvith ſeemly belaccoyle, / Ioyous to ſee her ſafe after long toyle.

   • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , lines 37–41:

     The nobleness of life / Is to do thus, when such a mutual pair / And such a twain can do ’t, in which I bind, / On pain of punishment, the world to weet / We stand up peerless.

   • 1885–1888, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “Night 13”, in A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night , Shammar edition, volume (please specify the volume), : Burton Club , →OCLC:

     I wept for myself, but resigned my soul to the tyranny of Time and Circumstance, well weeting that Fortune is fair and constant to no man.

See also

Anagrams

• ewte, twee

Afrikaans

Alternative forms

• wiet (Cape Afrikaans)

Etymology

From Dutch weten (“to know”), from Middle Dutch weten, from Old Dutch witan, from Proto-Germanic *witaną, from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“see, know”). Related to English wit.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vɪət/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

weet (present weet, present participle wetende, past wis, past participle geweet)

1. to know
2. to be aware of

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʋeːt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: weet
• Rhymes: -eːt

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch wete. See the verb weten (“to know”).

Noun

weet f (plural weten, diminutive weetje n)

1. awareness, knowledge
2. knowledge; science.
3. (archaic) notice; advertisement.

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

weet

1. inflection of weten:
   1. first/second/third-person singular present indicative
   2. imperative
2. singular past indicative of wijten

Anagrams

• twee, wete

Limburgish

Etymology

From Old Dutch *wit, from Proto-Germanic *wet, *wit. A rare example of the old dual pronoun surviving into a modern West Germanic language.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): ,

Pronoun

weet

1. nominative dual of ich

Luxembourgish

Verb

weet

1. inflection of weeden:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person plural present indicative
   3. second-person singular/plural imperative

Middle Dutch

Verb

wêet

1. first/third-person singular present indicative of wēten

West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian hwēte, wēt, from Proto-West Germanic *hwaitī.

Noun

weet c (plural weten)

1. wheat

Further reading

• “weet (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011