Etymology 1
From Middle English wiȝt, wight, from Old English wiht (“wight, person, creature, being, whit, thing, something, anything”), from Proto-Germanic *wihtą (“thing, creature”) or *wihtiz (“essence, object”), from Proto-Indo-European *wekti- (“cause, sake, thing”), from *wekʷ- (“to say, tell”). Cognate with Old High German wiht (“creature, thing”), Dutch wicht, German Wicht. Doublet of wight.
Noun
whit (plural whits)
- The smallest part or particle imaginable; an iota.
- Synonyms: bit, iota, jot, scrap; see also Thesaurus:modicum
c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], page 151:Star. I beleeue we muſt leaue the killing out, when all is done.
Bot. Not a whit: I haue a deuice to make all well.
1890 December 9, Thomas H. Huxley, “Letter to the "Times" on the "Darkest England Scheme"”, in Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays:Sadly behind the great age of rowdy self-advertisement in which their lot has fallen, they seem not to have advanced one whit beyond John the Baptist and the Apostles, 1800 years ago, in their notions of the way in which the metanoia, the change of mind of the ill-doer, is to be brought about.
1917, Countee Cullen, Incident:Now I was eight and very small, / And he was no whit bigger / And so I smiled, but he poked out / His tongue, and called me, 'Nigger.'
1944 July and August, “London Railway Stations in 1893”, in Railway Magazine, page 201, taken from The English Illustrated Magazine of June 1893:In conclusion, I would remark that the great railway stations of London deserve to be visited every whit as much as St. Paul's Cathedral, the Abbey, or the Tower, and they are as worthy a memento of this century as those buildings are of the days that are gone.
- hwit, white, whyte, whitt, whytt, whyt, whiȝt, qwyght, ȝwijt, wyghte, whiyt, whijt
Adjective
whit (plural and weak singular white, comparative whitter, superlative whittest)
- white, pale, light (in color)
c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.), published c. 1410, Apocalips 1:14, page 117v; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:⁊ þe heed of him ⁊ his heeris weren whiyt as whiyt wolle .· ⁊ as ſnow / ⁊ þe iȝen of him as flawme of fier .·- And his head and his hairs were white, like white wool or snow, and his eyes were like fire's flame.
- (referring to people) wearing white clothes
- (referring to people) having white skin
- attractive, fair, beautiful
- bright, shining, brilliant
- (referring to plants) having white flowers
- (heraldry) silver, argent (tincture)
- (alchemy) Inducing the transmutation of a substance into silver
- (medicine) Unusually light; bearing the pallor of death
See also
Colors in Middle English · coloures, hewes (layout · text)
| whit |
grey, hor |
blak |
| red; cremesyn, gernet |
citrine, aumbre; broun, tawne |
yelow, dorry, gul; canevas |
| grasgrene |
grene |
|
| plunket; ewage |
asure, livid |
blewe, blo, pers |
| violet; inde |
rose, murrey; purpel, purpur |
claret |
Adjective
whit (comparative whiter)
- white
1867, “VERSES IN ANSWER TO THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 2, page 100:Thou ne'er eighthest buskès, whit palskès, breede-kaake.- Thou never eatedst spiced bread, white palskes, (or) bride-cake.
References
- Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 78