Witful

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Characterized by or full of cleverness, intelligence, and quick mental sharpness in speech or thought
2. Marked by the presence of keen intellect and agility in both conversation and reasoning
3. Exhibiting an abundance of sharp insight and quickness in mental processes or dialogue

Etymology: "Witful" is a plain compound: "wit," meaning intelligence or mental quickness, plus the suffix "-ful," meaning "full of." Its earliest sense in Middle English was "wise, sagacious, cunning, or ingenious," so a witful person was literally full of wit, the same mental sharpness that "wit" carried at the time. The word is simply a formation from two English parts rather than a borrowing, so the interest lies in how the meaning sits between its parts. In Middle English, "wit" referred to the mind and its powers in general, and "-ful" attached easily to nouns to make adjectives describing abundance of that quality. That is why the adjective reached the sense of quickness in thought, the mental agility the root implies.