Witen

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To hold someone responsible or express disapproval of their actions or conduct
2. To assign fault to someone or criticize them for something they have done
3. To censure or rebuke a person for their behavior or a mistake they have made

Etymology: Middle English "witen" is the infinitive of a verb meaning "to know," inherited from Old English "witan." Its surprising feature is its grammar. "Witan" belonged to a small class of verbs whose past-tense forms came to express the present. "Wot," as in "I wot" ("I know"), is the old past form "wāt," which goes back to a Proto-Indo-European perfect meaning roughly "I have seen." Knowing was once understood as having seen. The same root reaches far beyond English. It is related to Latin "videre" ("to see") and Greek "oida" ("I know"), and the Greek form shows the same pattern of a perfect tense carrying a present meaning. "Witen" faded from use in the centuries after Chaucer, and English now keeps the verb only in fixed phrases such as "to wit," meaning "namely," and in the noun "wit," which descends from the related Old English "gewit," meaning "mind" or "understanding."