wite

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: wīt, IPA^(key): /waɪt/
• Rhymes: -aɪt
• Homophone: wight; (in accents with the wine-whine merger) white

Etymology 1

From Middle English wīten (“to accuse, reproach, punish, suspect”), Old English wītan (“to look, behold, see, guard, keep, impute or ascribe to, accuse, reproach, blame”), from Proto-West Germanic *wītan, from Proto-Germanic *wītaną. Connected to Old English wīte, see below.

Alternative forms

• wyte

Verb

wite (third-person singular simple present wites, present participle witing, simple past and past participle wited) (transitive, archaic or obsolete)

1. (chiefly Scotland) To regard (someone) as guilty, to accuse, to blame, to fault.
2. To censure (someone); to mulct, to reproach.
   • 1595, Ed. Spencer [i.e., Edmund Spenser], Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, London: T C for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, signature D3, verso:

     [U]niuſtly thou doeſt vvyte them all, / For that vvhich thou miſlikedſt in a fevv.

3. To guard (something); to keep, to observe, preserve, protect.

Etymology 2

From Middle English wite (“guilt, blameworthiness, blame, wrongdoing, misdeed, offense, punishment, retribution, fine, bote, customary rent”), from Old English wīte (“punishment, pain, torment”), from Proto-West Germanic *wītī, from Proto-Germanic *wītiją, from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see, find, behold”).

Noun

wite (plural wites)

1. (obsolete outside Scotland) Blame, responsibility, guilt.
   • 1922, E. R. Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros, The Project Gutenberg, Australia:

     Nor I will not suffer mine indignation so to witwanton with fair justice as persuade me to put the wite on Witchland.

2. Punishment, penalty, fine, bote, mulct.

Etymology 3

From Middle English witen, from Old English wītan (“to see, accuse, go, depart”), from Proto-West Germanic *wītan, from Proto-Germanic *wītaną, from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see, find, behold”).

Verb

wite (third-person singular simple present wites, present participle witing, simple past and past participle wited)

1. (obsolete or poetic) To go, go away, depart, perish, vanish

References

• Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

Middle English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwiːt(ə)/

Etymology 1

From Old English wīte, from Proto-West Germanic *wītī, from Proto-Germanic *wītiją.

Alternative forms

• wyte

Noun

wite (plural wites)

1. punishment, retribution

Descendants

• English: wite
• Yola: lotherwite

References

• “wīte, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

Adjective

wite

1. Alternative form of whit

Muna

Etymology

From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *buʀtaq.

Noun

wite

1. earth
2. soil
3. land

References

• Muna Dictionary – wite. SIL International.

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *wītī, from Proto-Germanic *wītiją. Cognate with Old Frisian wīte, Old Saxon wīti, Old High German wīzi, Old Norse víti.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwiː.te/

Noun

wīte n (nominative plural wītu)

1. punishment
2. penalty, fine
3. torment

Declension

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Medieval Latin: wīta

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvi.tɛ/
• Rhymes: -itɛ
• Syllabification: wi‧te

Participle

wite

1. inflection of wity:
   1. neuter nominative/accusative/vocative singular
   2. nonvirile nominative/accusative/vocative plural

Scots

Verb

wite

1. Alternative form of wyte

West Frisian

Verb

wite

1. Alternative form of witte

Inflection