Note 487 — Chapter VI · THE WITENA GEMÓT.
Reading edition
I write wita not wíta. The vowel is short, and the noun is formed either upon the plural participle of wítan to know, or upon a noun wit, intellectus, previously so formed. The quantity of the vowel is ascertained by the not uncommon spelling weota, where eo = ĭ (see Cod. Dipl. No. 1073), and the occurrence in composition of the form uta, which is consonant to the analogy of wudu, wuduwe, wuce for wĭdu, wĭduwe, wĭce, but excludes the possibility of a long í.