Wite

Pronunciation

• enPR: wÄ«t, IPA: /waɪt/
• Rhymes: -aɪt
• Homophones: wight; in accents with the wine-whine merger white

From Middle English wīten ("to accuse, reproach, punish, suspect"), Old English wītan ("to look, behold, see, guard, keep, impute or ascribe to, accuse, reproach, blame"), derived from Old English wīte, see below.

Alternative forms

• wyte

Full definition of wite

Verb

1. (chiefly Scotland) To blame; regard as guilty, fault, accuse
• Late 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘The Wife of Bath's Tale’, Canterbury Tales:As help me God, I shal þee nevere smyte!
  Þat I have doon, it is þyself to wyte.
2. To reproach, censure, mulct
3. To observe, keep, guard, preserve, protect

From Middle English wītan ("guilt, blameworthiness, blame, wrongdoing, misdeed, offense, punishment, retribution, fine, bote, customary rent"), from Old English wīte, see below.

Noun

1. (obsolete except Scotland) Blame, responsibility, guilt
• 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book I:So many lordes and barons of this reame were displeasyd, for her children were so lost, and many put the wyte on Merlyn more than on Arthur ....
• 1922 , E. R. Eddison , The Worm Ouroboros Chapter , Nor I will not suffer mine indignation so to witwanton with fair justice as persuade me to put the wite on Witchland.
2. Punishment, penalty, fine, bote, mulct

From Old English witan

Verb

1. (obsolete or poetic) To go, go away, depart, perish, vanish