wite

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: wīt, IPA^(key): /waɪt/
• Rhymes: -aɪt
• Homophones: wight; white (wine–whine merger)

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[homas] C[reede] 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[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros‎, London: Jonathan Cape, page 209:

     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
4. plague
   • Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church

     Þæt fīfte wīte wæs cwealm on heora orfe, swā þæt on ðām lande fornēan nān orf ne belāf, buton Israheles bē ānsund ġestōd.

     The fifth plague was a pestilence among their livestock, such that in the land almost no livestock were left, except for those of Israel, who remained healthy.

Declension

Strong ja-stem:

	singular	plural
nominative	wīte	wītu
accusative	wīte	wītu
genitive	wītes	wīta
dative	wīte	wītum

Derived terms

• ānwīte (“single fine”)
• bisċopwīte (“fine payable to a bishop, a bishop's fee for visiting”)
• blōdwīte (“blood-offering”)
• dolwīte (“punishment for audacity, temerity or fool-hardiness”)
• edwīt (“disgrace”)
• feohtwīte (“penalty for fighting”)
• feohwīte (“fine for coining false money”)
• fierdwīte (“fine for evading military service”)
• fulwīte (“a full fine”)
• ġieldwīte (“fine for unpaid tax”)
• ġierdwīte (“affliction caused by a rod (used of Moses' rod)”)
• hangwīte (“penally for miscarriage of justice”)
• hellewīte (“the torments of hell”)
• hengwīte (“fine for not detaining an offender”)
• leġerwīte (“fine for unlawful cohabitation”)
• nīedwīte (“inevitable punishment”)
• sċyldwīte (“fine for a crime of violence”)
• sorgwīte (“grievous torment”)
• weardwīte (“penalty for not keeping guard”)
• wītærn (“prison”)
• wītebend (“bonds of torture or punishment”)
• wītebrōga (“tormenting dread”)
• wītefæst (“penally enslaved”)
• wītehræġl (“penitential garb, sackcloth”)
• wītehūs (“torture-house, prison, hell: amphitheatre (as place of torture and martyrdom)”)
• wītelāc (“punishment”)
• wītelēas (“without punishment or fine”)
• wīterǣden (“punishment, fine”)
• wītesċræf (“pit of torment, hell”)
• wītestenġ (“pole used for torture”)
• wītestōw (“place of torment or execution”)
• wīteswing (“scourging, punishment”)
• wītetōl (“instrument of torture”)
• wīteþēow (“person reduced to slavery by the law”)
• wītnian (“to punish”)

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

Strong class 1
infinitive	wite
3rd singular past	wiet
past participle	witen
infinitive	wite
long infinitive	witen
gerund	witen n
auxiliary	hawwe
indicative	present tense	past tense
1st singular	wyt	wiet
2nd singular	wytst	wietst
clitic form	wytsto	wietsto
3rd singular	wyt	wiet
plural	wite	wieten
imperative	wyt
participles	witend	witen