English
Etymology
Old English witan#Old English|witan, plural of wita �wise man�.
Pronunciation
IPA|/�wɪt�n/
Noun
en-noun
- The Anglo-Saxon national council or witenagemot.
#:*1833: But in estimating the powers of the witan, we must not lose sight of the fact, that the king sometimes assumes a tone of superiority scarcely consistent with its independence. � SA Dunham, Europe in the Middle Ages (Green & Longman, p.48)
- The members of such an assembly.
Old English
Etymology 1
Inflected forms.
Pronunciation
IPA|/�wit�n/
Noun
witan
- plural of|wita
Etymology 2
From Germanic *witan (present tense *wait-), from Indo-European *u̯oidh�e, originally a perfect form of *u̯eid- �see�. Cognate with Old Frisian wita, Old Saxon witan/unicode|wet|w�t (Dutch weten), Old High German wizzan/weiz (German wissen), Old Norse vita/veit (Swedish veta), Gothic �����/����. The IE root is also the source of Latin videre, Baltic *waid- (Lithuanian vadinti), Slavic *v�de- (Old Church Slavonic вѣдѣ�и, Russian веда��).
Pronunciation
IPA|/�wit�n/
Verb
witan (preterite-present: 3 singular present unicode|wat|w�t, 3 singular preterite wisse or wiste, preterite plural wisson or wiston, past participle (ġe)witen)
- to know something, to be aware of something
Descendants
English: wit, wot
Etymology 3
From Old English witan, from Germanic *wit-. Cognate with Old Norse vÃta
Pronunciation
IPA|/wi�t�n/
Verb
Latinx|wītan(class I strong: ''3 singular present witeþ, past wat/witon, past participle gewiten)
- to blame, accuse, reproach
Descendants
English wite
Etymology 4
Unknown.
Pronunciation
IPA|/wi:tan/
Verb
Latinx|wītan (also in the form ġewītan)(class I strong: ''3 singular present witeþ, past wat/witon, past participle gewiten)
- to depart
Descendants
English wite
Category:Old English preterite-present verbs
Category:Old English strong verbs
fr:witan
ru:witan
zh:witan
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