
I love words, learning new ones, using them in unexpected ways, mixing up my personal lexicon. I learned a new phrase yesterday. I was speaking with a friend and this was the conversation:
My friend: "We have to be at the pool for the swim meet at 6:45."
Me: "That is early for a Saturday."
My friend: "To wit!"
Me: (In my head, not out loud)"Huh?"
I had never heard that phrase before and frankly at that moment I wasn't even sure if it was an actual colloquialism or merely a sound "toowhit" as in "woowee" or "yeehaw." Uneventfully, the conversation continued and I was able to follow the rest with no problem.
Skip forward to my bedtime reading. I picked up a book that has been on my shelf for a few years, given to me by another friend. This book never drew me to read it until last night. I picked it up out of desperation for something interesting to read. Three pages into the book what do I read but "To wit..." Huh? Twice in one day? Synchronicity wouldn't you say? That
is what my friend said earlier, now I was sure.
So I looked to my favorite secret resource,
www.thefreedictionary.com to clear up this unknown term. Here's what I found:
To wit (Adverb) - as follows, namely, that is to say, videlicet, viz.
You can look up those new words above that you don't know on your own time. Until then, don't you love it? A new way to voice agreement with a statement, a new way to say "obviously." A new way to say "Puh!"
Huh? Wait, you won't find "puh" in the freedictionary. That was a term frequently used by my brothers and me when we were young. It meant "Yeah, right!" "Obviously!" "Don't be a dolt!" Now I don't think my friend was calling me a dolt. But regardless, I am so thrilled to have this new, much more intelligent avenue for expressing myself. To wit!