wiss

• wis

Perhaps an alteration of wis, taken from the incorrect division of iwis (“sure(ly), certain(ly)”) from Middle English iwis, ywis (“sure(ly), certain(ly)”), from Old English ġewis (“certain, positive, sure”)) as "I wis", which was mistaken for a verb. Perhaps from (certainly akin to) Old English witan (“to know”). See wit.

wiss (third-person singular simple present wisses, present participle wissing, simple past and past participle wissed)

1. (archaic) To know; to understand.
   • 1652, Elias Ashmole, Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum:

     Now with their might they downe me pull, and bring me where they woll, the Blood of myne heart I wiss now causeth both Joy and blisse.

   • 1874, Dodsley et al., A Select Collection of Old English Plays:

     And though that the water be gross and heavy, yet nothing so gross as the earth, I wiss; therefore by heat it is vapoured up lightly, and in the air maketh clouds and mists.

• wiiss, wéiss

From Old High German wīz, from Proto-Germanic *hwītaz. Cognate with German weiß, Dutch wit, English white, Icelandic hvítur.

wiss

1. (Gressoney, Carcoforo, Rimella, Campello Monti, Formazza) white

• “wiss” in Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Ünsarne Börtar [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien