pseudo-arch. Also 7 (3 pers. sing.) wisses, 9 wiss. Orig. in I wis = IWIS adv. (q.v.) erron. taken as = ‘I know’; hence occas. as a synonym of ‘know’ in other parts of the verb, being apprehended as the present of wist, pa. t. of WIT v.1
[The following show various stages of corruption of iwis:—
1508. Dunbar, Tua Mariit Wemen, 37. Ane wes ane wedow, I wist. Ibid., 414. Now am I a wedow, I wise.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., IV. i. 180. And if I wish he did. But let it rest.
1614. W. Browne, Sheph. Pipe, C 6. Better cannot be I wist, Descant on it he that list.
1615. Brathwait, Strappado, 115. Strange the Proiect was I wish Of this Metamorphosis.
1798. Coleridge, Anc. Mar., III. ii. It moved and moved, and took at last A certain shape, I wist.
1818. Byron, To Mr. Murray, v. Tours, Travels, Essays, too, I wist, And Sermons to thy mill bring grist.
1893. F. Thompson, Poems, 75.
| Wings, I wist, | |
| Whose amethyst | |
| Trepidations have forgone me,— | |
| Hesper’s filmy traffickers! |
1606. Lyly’s Euphues (1613), Y 1 b. You gall mee more with these tearmes then you wisse [ed. 1580 wist, 1597 wish].
1642. Milton, Apol. Smect., 13. Where my morning haunts are he wisses not.
[Cf. 1642. [? J. Hall], Modest Confut., To Rdr. A iij b. Where his morning haunts are I wist not.]
1662. A. Cooper, Stratologia, II. 47. Morgan more valorous than hee wis’d or wil’d.
1803. W. S. Rose, Amadis de Gaul, 31.
| ‘Liege lady mine,’ quoth he, ‘full well I wiss | |
| To serve your princely will were perfect bliss. |
c. 1830. Coleridge, Alice Du Clos, 77. And, bonny boy, you wis, Lord Julian is a hasty man.
1844. Mrs. Browning, Romaunt of Page, xxiii. In the dark chambère, if the bride was fair, Ye wis, I could not see.
