1857. Trollope, Barchester Towers, xli. The wishy-washy, bread-and-butter period of life.
1876. Hindley, Cheap Jack, 192. Mo and his man were having a great breakfast . . . off a twopenny buster and a small bit of butter, with some wishy-washy coffee . . .
1881. Braddon, Asphodel, xx. A year hence she will have lost all that brightness, and will be a very wishy-washy little person.
1891. Harry Fludyer at Cambridge, 18. Papa did not care for it much when I sang it the first time, and said it was wishy-washy; but he knows nothing whatever about music. The only song he ever did care about was 'Annie Laurie'; I think it was because mother always sang it.
Wisker, subs. (old).—A lie.
1694. Plautus made English, 9. Suppose I tell her some damned wisker; why, that's but m' old Dog-trick.
Wisp. To give (wear, or show) a
wisp, verb. phr. (old).—A wisp,
or small twist, of straw or hay,
was often applied as a mark of
opprobrium to an immodest
woman, a scold, or similar
offenders; even the showing it
to a woman was, therefore,
considered as a grievous affront.
It was the badge of the scolding
woman, in the ceremony of
Skimmington (q.v.).
1567. Drant, Horace, vii. So perfyte and exacte a scoulde that women might give place, Whose tatling tongues had won a wispe.
1595. Shakspeare, 3 Henry VI., ii. 2. A wisp of straw were worth a thousand crowns, To make this shameless callat know herself.
1628. Earle, Microcos. (Bliss), 278. [Of a scold.] There's nothing mads or moves her more to outrage, then but the very naming of a wispe, or if you sing or whistle while she is scoulding.
1632. Rowley, New Wonder [Anc. Dr., v. 266]. Nay worse, I'll stain thy ruff; nay, worse than that, I'll do thus. [Holds a wisp.] M. Fost. Oh my heart, gossip, do you see this? was ever Woman thus abus'd?
Wittol, subs. (old).—A husband
who knows of, and endures his
wife's unfaithfulness; a contented
cuckold. As verb = to make a
wittol. [Skeat: From woodwale
(a bird whose nest is often invaded
by the cuckoo, and so has
the offspring of another palmed
off on it for its own; like Cuckold,
from Cuckoo.]
1513-25. Skelton Works (Dyce), ii. 178 [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 394. The old Wittol in the guise of a wetewold is now first used in its evil sense].
1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, ii. 2. Amaimon sounds well; Lucifer, well; Barbason, well; yet they are devil's additions, the names of fiends! But cuckold, wittol, cuckold! The devil himself hath not such a name!
1597. Hall, Satires, i. 7. Fond wittol that would'st load thy witless head, With timely horns before thy bridal bed.
1611. Cotgrave, Dict., s.v. Jannin. A wittall; one that knowes, and bears with, or winks at, his wives dishonesty.
1621. Burton, Anat. Melan., 44. To see . . . a Wittol wink at his wife's dishonesty, and too perspicuous in all other affairs.
1624. Davenport, City Nightcap, i. 1. He would wittol me With a consent to my own horns.
1631. Lenton, Characters, 32. A cuckold is a harmelesse horned creature, but they [his horns] hang not in his eies, as your wittals doe.
1638. Ford, Fancies, ii. 1. Mark, Vespucci, how the wittol Stares on his sometime wife! Sure he imagines To be a cuckold by consent is purchase Of approbation in a state.
1641. Wits Recreations. Thy stars gave thee the cuckold's diadem: If thou wert born to be a wittol, can Thy wife prevent thy fortune? foolish man!
1693. Congreve, Old Batchelor, v. 6. Sharp. Death! it can't be—an oaf, an ideot, a wittal.
