What does weete mean?
Weete is an archaic English verb meaning “to know” or “to be aware of.” It belongs to the same Germanic word family as the modern noun wit and the surviving present-tense form wot, and it could take an object: to weete the truth was to know it, while “weete not” corresponded to “do not know.” The form is not part of ordinary modern usage; it survives chiefly in older literary texts, records of Middle English, and quotations of early writing, where it may sound either literary or deliberately period. Its range includes knowledge of a fact as well as awareness or understanding, but it is not restricted to the modern sense of wit meaning cleverness. Encountering weete is therefore useful chiefly as a historical clue: it shows how familiar verbs such as know and understand developed in English and connects modern wit with a much older vocabulary of knowledge, perception, and awareness.
verbAn archaic verb meaning “to know” or “to be aware of.” It could also take an object, as in “to weete the truth,” meaning “to know the truth.”
- To know or be aware of a fact, situation, or person; to understand.
"The old captain weete that the storm was beginning to turn."
"The messenger weete that the king had withdrawn to the northern castle."
"I weete not what answer they will give."
Say “weete” instead of “know,” and the language instantly feels older: it carries the same Germanic sense of awareness that survives in “wit” and “wot.”
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of weete
The form weete comes from Middle English, where it continued Old English witan, “to know.” That verb was inherited from Proto-Germanic *witaną and has relatives including Old Norse vit and Old High German wizzan; English wit and words such as wisdom and witness continue cognate material associated with knowing. In Middle and early modern English, forms such as wite, wete, weete, and wot could appear within the same verbal system. Weete is consequently an archaic form of “know,” not a separate modern standard-English verb.
Related word forms
How weete is actually used
Obsolete in standard modern English and encountered chiefly in Middle English, Early Modern English, historical quotations, or deliberately archaic writing. It may occur in constructions equivalent to “know” and “do not know.”
Easily confused with weete
While weete is an archaic form of the verb “know,” weet is a Scottish and northern English word meaning “sweet.”