witless
Lacking wit or understanding; foolish.
Adjective
- Lacking wit or understanding; foolish.
- Then will we march to all thoſe Indian Mines, My witleſſe brother to the Chriſtians loſt: And ranſome them with fame and vſurie. - c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First...
- To be his whore, is witles; Out upon't; - 1613–1614 (date written), John Fletcher, William Shak[e]speare, The Two Noble Kinsmen: […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Waterson; […], published 1634, →OCLC, Act II,...
- Indiscreet; not using clear and sound judgment.
- Mindless, lacking conscious thought or the capacity for it.
- Rage warps my clearest cry To witless agony. - 1941, Theodore Roethke, “Open House”, in Open House, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →OCLC; republished in The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, London: Faber...
Origin
From Middle English witles, from Old English witlēas (“senseless; witless”), from Proto-Germanic *witjalausaz (“witless”), equivalent to wit + -less. Cognate with Swedish vettlös (“senseless; witless; wild”), Icelandic vitlaus (“senseless; witless; foolish; mad”).