wise
pronunciation
How to pronounce wise in British English:
UK [waɪz]
How to pronounce wise in American English:
US [waɪz]
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- Noun:
- a way of doing or being
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- Adjective:
- having or prompted by wisdom or discernment
- marked by the exercise of good judgment or common sense in practical matters
- evidencing the possession of inside information
- able to take a broad view of negotiations between states
- carefully considered
Word Origin
- wise
- wise: English has two distinct words wise, but they come from the same ultimate source: the Indo-European base *woid-, *weid-, *wid-. This denoted ‘see’, and hence ‘know’, and it also produced English idea, vision, and wit. From it was formed the past participial adjective *wīttos, which passed into prehistoric Germanic as *wīsaz ‘knowing things, learned’.And this has since evolved into German weise, Dutch wijs, Swedish and Danish vis, and English wise. Wisdom [OE] and wizard are derivatives. Meanwhile, another derivative of the same prehistoric base was the Germanic noun *wīsōn, *wīsō, whose original meaning ‘appearance’ (going back to the ancestral ‘see’ of the base) had developed via ‘for, shape’ and ‘kind, sort’ to ‘way, manner’.This produced German weise, Dutch wijze, Swedish and Danish vis (used largely in compounds and phrases), and English wise (similarly nowadays restricted mainly to compounds, such as likewise and otherwise). Guise is ultimately the same word, filtered through Old French.=> guise, idea, vision, wit, wizard
- wise (adj.)
- Old English wis "learned, sagacious, cunning; sane; prudent, discreet; experienced; having the power of discerning and judging rightly," from Proto-Germanic *wissaz (cognates: Old Saxon, Old Frisian wis, Old Norse viss, Dutch wijs, German weise "wise"), from past participle adjective *wittos of PIE root *weid- "to see," hence "to know" (see vision). Modern slang meaning "aware, cunning" first attested 1896. Related to the source of Old English witan "to know, wit." A wise man has no extensive knowledge; He who has extensive knowledge is not a wise man. [Lao-tzu, "Tao te Ching," c. 550 B.C.E.] Wise man was in Old English. Wise guy is attested from 1896, American English; wise-ass (n.) by 1966, American English (probably a literal sense is intended by the phrase in the 1607 comedy "Westward Hoe" by Dekker and Webster). Wisenheimer, with mock German or Yiddish surname suffix, first recorded 1904.
- wise (n.)
- "way of proceeding, manner," Old English wise "way, fashion, custom, habit, manner; condition, state, circumstance," from Proto-Germanic *wison "appearance, form, manner" (see wise (adj.)). Compare Old Saxon wisa, Old Frisian wis, Danish vis, Middle Dutch wise, Dutch wijs, Old High German wisa, German Weise "way, manner." Most common in English now as a word-forming element (as in likewise, clockwise); the adverbial -wise has been used thus since Old English. For sense evolution from "to see" to "way of proceeding," compare cognate Greek eidos "form, shape, kind," also "course of action." Ground sense is "to see/know the way."
- wise (v.)
- Old English wisean "make wise or knowing" (transitive), cognate with Old Frisian wisa, Old Saxon wisian, Middle Dutch wisen, Dutch wijzen, Old High German wisan, German weisen; from the source of wise (adj.). Intransitive wise up is attested by 1905.
Example
- 1. Publishers are wise to be nervous .
- 2. Wise firms will strive to remove barriers for women .
- 3. Remember that those who listen are perceived to be wise !
- 4. He thinks they are wise not to .
- 5. Wise men and wise women still seek him .