native wit

native wit (uncountable)

1. The intelligence or common sense with which one is normally born.
   • 1781, Samuel Johnson, "Samuel Butler" in Lives of the Poets:

     But the most valuable parts of his performance are those which retired study and native wit cannot supply.

   • c. 1870, Bayard Taylor, "Mrs. Strongitharm's Report" in Beauty and The Beast and Tales of Home:

     Nelly Kirkpatrick was a great, red-haired giant of a woman, very illiterate, but with some native wit, and good-hearted enough, I am told, when she was in her right mind.

   • 1916, H. Rider Haggard, The Ivory Child, ch. 8:

     Or we might go practically unaccompanied, relying on our native wit and good fortune to attain our ends.

   • 1978, "Music: Luciano's Back in Town," Time, 6 March:

     But with his native wit and musical intelligence, Pavarotti cannot act dumb.

   • 2011, Judith Woods, "The Royal Family: Put a royal sock in it, Sarah," telegraph.co.uk, 9 March (retrieved 4 April 2011):

     Needy, venal and entirely unencumbered with self-knowledge or native wit, the Duchess is yet again the architect of her own misfortune.

• good sense, mother wit