1. From the garments of _white linen_, in which those who were at that
season admitted to the rite of holy baptism were clothed; (as typical of
the spiritual purity therein obtained:) or,--
2. From the glorious light of heaven, sent down from the father of
Lights on the day of Pentecost: and "those vast diffusions of light and
knowledge, which were then shed upon the Apostles, in order to the
enlightening of the world." (Wheatley.) Or,--
3. From the custom of the rich bestowing on this day all the milk of
their kine, then called _white meat_, on the poor. (Wheatley, from
Gerard Langbain.)
II. _Huict Sunday_: from the French, _huit_, eight; i.e. the eighth
Sunday from Easter. (L'Estrange, _Alliance Div. Off._)
III. There are others who see that neither of these explanations can
stand; because the ancient mode of spelling the word was not
_Whit_-sunday, but _Wit_-sonday (as in Wickliff), or _Wite_-sonday
(which is as old as _Robert of Gloucester_, c. A.D. 1270). Hence,--
1. Versteran's explanation:--That it is _Wied_ Sunday, _i.e. Sacred_
Sunday (from Saxon, _wied_, or _wihed_, a word I do not find in
Bosworth's _A.-S. Dict._; but so written in Brady's _Clovis Calendaria_,
as below). But why should this day be distinguished as sacred beyond all
other Sundays in the year?
2. In _Clavis Calendaria_, by John Brady (2 vols. 8vo. 1815), I find,
vol. i. p. 378., "Other authorities contend," he does not say who those
authorities are, "that the original name of this season of the year was
_Wittentide_; or the time of choosing the _wits_, or wise men, to the
_Wittenagemote_."
Now this last, though evidently an etymology inadequate to the
importance of the festival, appears to me to furnish the right clue. The
day of Pentecost was the day of the outpouring of the Divine Wisdom and
Knowledge on the Apostles; the day on which was given to them that HOLY
SPIRIT, by which was "revealed" to them "_The wisdom of God_ ... even
the _hidden wisdom_, which GOD ordained before the world." 1 Cor. ii.
7.[1] It was the day on which was fulfilled the promise {139} made to
them by CHRIST that "The Comforter, which is the HOLY GHOST, whom the
Father will send in my name, he shall _teach you all things_, and bring
all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." John,
xiv. 26. When "He, the Spirit of Truth, came, who should _guide_ them
_into all truth_." John xvi. 13. And the consequence of this "unction
from the Holy One" was, that they "knew all things," and "needed not
that any man should teach them." 1 John, ii. 20. 27.
_Whit-sonday_ was, therefore, the day on which the Apostles were endued
by God with _wisdom_ and knowledge: and my Query is, whether the root of
the word may not be found in the Anglo-Saxon verb,--
_Witan_, to know, understand (whence our _wit_, in its old meaning of
good sense, or cleverness and the expression "having one's _wits_ about
one," &c.); or else, perhaps, from--
_Wisian_, to instruct, show, inform; (Ger. _weisen_). Not being an
Anglo-Saxon scholar, I am unable of myself to trace the formation of the
word _witson_ from either of these roots: and I should feel greatly
obliged to any of your correspondents who might be able and willing to
inform me, whether that form is deduceable from either of the above
verbs; and if so, what sense it would bear in our present language. I am
convinced, that _wisdom day_, or _teaching day_, would afford a very far
better reason for the name now applied to Pentecost, than any of the
reasons commonly given. I should observe, that I think it incorrect to
say Whit-Sunday. It should be Whitsun (Witesone) Day. If it is Whit
Sunday, why do we say Easter Day, and not Easter Sunday? Why do we say
Whitsun-Tide? Why does our Prayer Book say Monday and Tuesday in
Whitsun-week (just as before, Monday and Tuesday in Easter-week)? And
why do the lower classes, whose "vulgarisms" are, in nine cases out of
ten, more correct than our refinements, still talk about Whitsun Monday
and Whitsun Tuesday, where the more polite say, Whit Monday and Tuesday?
Query II. As I am upon etymologies, let me ask, may not the word _Mass_,
used for the Lord's Supper--which Baronius derives from the Hebrew
_missach_, an oblation, and which is commonly derived from the "missa
missorum"--be nothing more nor less than _mess_ (_mes_, old French), the
meal, the repast, the supper? We have it still lingering in the phrase,
"an officers' mess;" i.e. a meal taken in common at the same table; and
so, "to mess together," "messmate," and so on. Compare the Moeso-Gothic
_mats_, food: and _maz_, which Bosworth says (_A.-S. Dic._ sub voc.
_Mete_) is used for bread, food, in Otfrid's poetical paraphrase of the
Gospels, in Alemannic or High German, published by Graff, Konigsberg,
1831.