Word Origin & History
inwitM.E. word meaning "conscience" (early 13c.), "reason, intellect" (c.1300), from in (adv.) + wit (n.). Not related to O.E. inwit, which meant "deceit." Joyce's use in "Ulysses" (1922), which echoes the 14c. work "Ayenbite of Inwyt," is perhaps the best-known example of the modern use of the word as a
conscious archaism.
"Þese ben also þy fyve inwyttys: Wyl, Resoun, Mynd, Ymaginacioun, and Thoght" [Wyclif, c.1380]
"If ... such good old English words as inwit and wanhope should be rehabilitated (and they have been pushing up their heads for thirty years), we should gain a great deal." [Robert Bridges, 1922]
