wiss

See also: Wiss

English

Alternative forms

• wis

Etymology

Perhaps an alteration of wis, taken from the incorrect division of iwis (“surely, certainly”) as "I wis", and mistaken for a verb; see wis. Perhaps from (certainly akin to) Old English witan (“to know”); see wit.

Verb

wiss (third-person singular simple present wisses, present participle wissing, simple past and past participle wissed)

1. (archaic) To know; to understand.
   • 1652, Elias Ashmole, Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum:

     Now with their might they downe me pull, and bring me where they woll, the Blood of myne heart I wiss now causeth both Joy and blisse.

   • 1874, A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Dodsley et al.:

     And though that the water be gross and heavy, yet nothing so gross as the earth, I wiss; therefore by heat it is vapoured up lightly, and in the air maketh clouds and mists.

Alemannic German

Alternative forms

• wiiss, wéiss

Etymology

From Old High German wīz, from Proto-West Germanic *hwīt, from Proto-Germanic *hwītaz. Cognate with German weiß, Dutch wit, English white, Icelandic hvítur.

Adjective

wiss

1. (Gressoney, Carcoforo, Rimella and Campello Monti, Formazza) white

References

• Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Luserna / Lusérn: Le nostre parole / Ünsarne börtar / Unsere Wörter [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle isole linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien