A Friend in West Virginia, Part Three

During much of our communication time, my friend seemed to have things together and he showed he was a smart guy; however, there were signs of a troubled mind, but the signs were "seemingly" minor. For example, he had trouble taking any joke or ribbing about himself, but he loved to do so to others, including me. Now on a given day any of us might get our feathers ruffled about a joke poking fun at us, but generally speaking I can take such jokes, and indeed, I often make myself the target of jokes. I had no problem with his jokes with me, and I even told him to kid around with me; that's me in every day life, joking and kidding, even at my own expense. But if I threw a little kidding his way, the anger flared, and a hot-toned email would come my way. Now, this is not unusual among people, as many folks can be thin-skinned, so I really didn't make too much of it, and when you like a person, you tend to overlook, or discount, some flaws.

WORD HISTORY:
Wit (witty)-This word, closely related to "wise," goes back to Indo European "weid/uyd," which had the notion "to see;" thus, "to know how to go, how to proceed." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "witanan," meaning "to know." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "witan," with the meaning, "to understand, to be aware of;" thus, "to know."This then became "witen," before the modern version. The verb is now pretty much confined to legal matters, in the form, "to wit;" with the meaning, "to make clear, to specify." While the verb form is no longer as common among most English speakers, the noun form continues as a pretty common word. It has the same Indo European ancestor, of course, which then gave Old Germanic "witja/wittja," with the general meaning, "reason, intellect, knowledge." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) both "gewit," meaning, "wits, sound mind," and "witt," "understanding, knowledge, sound mind." This then became "wit." By the 1500s, a further meaning of "able to craft a humorous story" had developed, although the similar development in close relative German is at least curious, as in German around that same time, "Witz," the German form of "wit," came to mean "humorous story, joke." Old English also had the derived noun "wita," meaning "a knowledgeable man;" thus, "adviser." The adjective "witty" comes from Old English "wittig," which meant "clever, crafty, wise," and it then became "witti," before the modern form. It followed along with the noun into the further meaning of "humorous, joking," in the 1500s. In modern English, the noun form is often used in the plural when referring to a person's mind, mental faculties, as in: "I'm losing wits," or, "Get your wits together." The other Germanic languages also have various forms, some of which are: German "Witz" (noun-a joke), "wissen" (verb-to know a fact), "witzig" (adjective-humorous, funny, witty); Low German Saxon "Weten" (noun-knowledge), Dutch "weten" (verb-to know), Danish "viden" (noun-knowledge), Icelandic "vit" (noun-sense), Norwegian "viten" (noun-knowledge), Swedish "vett" (noun-wit, sense).