Witter
adj, name, verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 To speak at length on a trivial subject. informal, intransitive
"She got home and started wittering about some religious cult she’d just heard about."
- 2 to make sure, inform, or declare. dialectal, intransitive, obsolete
- 1 knowing, certain, sure, wis. dialectal, obsolete
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"She got home and started wittering about some religious cult she’d just heard about."
Etymology
From Middle English witter, witer, of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse vitr (“wise, knowing”), from Proto-Germanic *witraz (“knowing”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to know”). Cognate with Icelandic vitur (“wise”). More at wit, wis.
From Middle English witteren, witeren, of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse vitra (“to make wise, make sure”), from Proto-Germanic *witrōną (“to make wise”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to know”). Cognate with Icelandic vitra (“to make wise, make certain”), Icelandic vitur (“wise”). More at wit, wis.
From Middle English Witere, Wytere, Whittere, Whytere (surname), from Middle English whitere (“a bleacher, caulker, whitewasher”), equivalent to white + -er.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.