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Origin and history of wiseacre

wiseacre(n.)

"one who thinks himself wise, one who makes pretension to affects wisdom," 1590s, a partial translation of Middle Dutch wijssegger "soothsayer" (without derogatory connotation). The form of the Dutch word probably was altered by association with Middle Dutch segger "sayer" from Old High German wizzago "prophet" (from wizzan "to know;" see wit (v.)).

The deprecatory sense of "one who pretends to know everything" may have come through confusion with obsolete English segger "sayer," which also had a sense of "braggart" (mid-15c.). The first element has been conformed with wise (adj.).

also from 1590s

Entries linking to wiseacre

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.

*weid-

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to see."

It might form all or part of: advice; advise; belvedere; clairvoyant; deja vu; Druid; eidetic; eidolon; envy; evident; guide; guidon; guise; guy (n.1) "small rope, chain, wire;" Gwendolyn; Hades; history; idea; ideo-; idol; idyll; improvisation; improvise; interview; invidious; kaleidoscope; -oid; penguin; polyhistor; prevision; provide; providence; prudent; purvey; purview; review; revise; Rig Veda; story (n.1) "connected account or narration of some happening;" supervise; survey; twit; unwitting; Veda; vide; view; visa; visage; vision; visit; visor; vista; voyeur; wise (adj.) "learned, sagacious, cunning;" wise (n.) "way of proceeding, manner;" wisdom; wiseacre; wit (n.) "mental capacity;" wit (v.) "to know;" witenagemot; witting; wot.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit veda "I know;" Avestan vaeda "I know;" Greek oida, Doric woida "I know," idein "to see;" Old Irish fis "vision," find "white," i.e. "clearly seen," fiuss "knowledge;" Welsh gwyn, Gaulish vindos, Breton gwenn "white;" Gothic, Old Swedish, Old English witan "to know;" Gothic weitan "to see;" English wise, German wissen "to know;" Lithuanian vysti "to see;" Bulgarian vidya "I see;" Polish widzieć "to see," wiedzieć "to know;" Russian videt' "to see," vest' "news," Old Russian vedat' "to know."

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