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Origin and history of weet

weet(v.)

"to know" (archaic), 1540s, from Middle English weten, variant of witen "to know" (see wit (v.)).

also from 1540s

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wit(v.)

"to know, be certain about, have knowledge of" (archaic), Old English witan (past tense wast, past participle witen) "to know, beware of or conscious of, understand, observe, ascertain, learn," from Proto-Germanic *witanan "to have seen," hence "to know" (from PIE root *weid- "to see;" compare wise (adj.)).

The phrase to wit, almost the only surviving use of the verb, is recorded by 1570s, from earlier that is to wit (mid-14c.), itself probably a loan-translation of Anglo-French cestasavoir, used to render Latin videlicet (see viz.).

Germanic cognates include Old Saxon witan, Old Norse vita, Old Frisian wita, Middle Dutch, Dutch weten, Old High German wizzan, German wissen, Gothic witan "to know."

God wot "God knows," used to emphasize truth, is by early 13c. Also see wist.

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