Meaning and Origin
What does the name Whit mean? Keep reading to find the user submitted meanings, dictionary definitions, and more.
Origin and Meaning of Whit
User Submitted Origins
English
45%
American
36%
German
18%
International Interest
Also see international interest
Webster's Unabridged Dictionary
noun Whit
The smallest part or particle imaginable; a bit; a jot; an iota; -- generally used in an adverbial phrase in a negative sentence.
Etymology: OE. wight wiht, AS. wiht a creature, a thing. See Wight, and cf. Aught Naught
Other Dictionary Sources
- A tiny or scarcely detectable amount
Wiktionary
From Middle English, from Old English wiht (“wight, person, creature, being, whit, thing, something, anything”), from Proto-Germanic *wihtą (“thing, creature”) or Proto-Germanic *wihtiz (“essence, object”), from Proto-Indo-European *wekti- (“cause, sake, thing”), from Proto-Indo-European *wekʷ- (“to say, tell”). Cognate with Old High German wiht (“creature, thing”), Dutch wicht, German Wicht. See also wight.
- The smallest part or particle imaginable; an iota.
- He worked tirelessly to collect and wind a ball of string eight feet around, and it matters not one .
whit was also found in the following language(s): Middle English and Scots