witter meaning (informal): definition, etymology and quotations

witter

verb

UK /ˈwɪtə(ɹ)/ · US /ˈwɪtɚ/

Informal To speak at length on a trivial subject.

She got home and started wittering about some religious cult she’d just heard about.
When people witter on about pollution nowadays, I think of the days when going to school in broad daylight, I couldn't see my feet in the London smog. I had to feel the kerb with my front bike wheel.2022 February 23, Benedict le Vay, “Part of rail's past... present... and future”, in RAIL, number 951, page 55:

witter

adj

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.

Dialectal, Obsolete knowing, certain, sure, wis.

witter

verb

Etymology 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.

Dialectal, Obsolete to make sure, inform, or declare.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.