sb. Obs. or arch. Forms: 5–6 wetewold, 6–7 wittold, wittall, wit-wal, 6–8 wittal, (6 wittole, -oll, -ale, -ald, witall, 7 whittoll), 7–8 wital, 6– wittol. [Late ME. wetewold, app. formed after cokewold, CUCKOLD, with substitution of wete, WIT v.1 for the first part of the word.]
1. A man who is aware of and complaisant about the infidelity of his wife; a contented cuckold.
14[?]. ? Lydg., Assembly of Gods, 710. Wetewoldes that suffre syn in her syghtes.
c. 1520. Skelton, Garl. Laurel, 187. Some carefull cokwoldes…; Some famous wetewoldis, and they be moche wurs.
1597. Bp. Hall, Sat., I. vii. Fond wit-wal that wouldst lode thy wit-lesse head With timely hornes.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., II. ii. 313. But Cuckold, Wittoll, Cuckold? the Diuell himselfe hath not such a name.
1614. W. Browne, Inner Temple Masque, ii. Come yee whose hornes the cuckold weares, The whittoll too, with asses eares.
1736. Vaughan, Voy. (1760), I. 136. [He] being a good-humour’d easy Man, and a Wittol to boot, at their Tears and Entreaties, forgave ’em both.
1818. Byron, Juan, I. xcix. A real husband [MS. wittol] always is suspicious.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xxxvi. She would not quit the estate and title of the wittol who had wedded her.
b. transf. (? with pun on wit-all.) One who has little sense; a half-witted person; a fool; occas. a witling.
1588. J. Aske, Eliz. Triumphans, To Rdr. A 3. They … are … accounted of as wittals, for spending their studies about such common deuises.
1599. T. M[oufet], Silkwormes, 34. To see great wittols little things despise.
1639. J. Clarke, Parœm., 151. He that’s wicked is a witall [stultus].
1721. Amherst, Terræ-Filius, xxxix. (1726), II. 211. Heaven was crouded with religious punsters and witals.
1822. Scott, Pirate, xxxvi. He told them they should see what message he was about to send to the wittols [sc. the Mayor and Aldermen] of Kirkwall.
1866. Kingsley, Herew., xxxiv. Gospatric! the wittol! the wood-cock!
2. attrib. That is a wittol, pertaining to or characteristic of a wittol; transf. half-witted, senseless.
1604. Marston, Malcontent, IV. iii. F 2 b. And do I liue to be the skoffe of men, To be their wittall cuckold…?
1703. Rowe, Fair Penit., III. i. If thou wou’dst live, Without the Name of credulous, wittal Husband, Avoid thy Bride.
1780. Burke, Sp. Ho. Comm., 11 Feb., 76. What sums the nursing of that ill-thriven … and ill-favoured brat [sc. Nova Scotia], has cost to this wittol nation! Ibid. (1796), Regic. Peace, iii. (1892), 193. There are cases in which we may pretend to sleep: but the wittol rule has some sense in it, Non omnibus dormio.
1810. Wirt, in J. P. Kennedy, Mem. (1860), I. xviii. 258. As one of Congreve’s wittol squires said…, it is a pleasure I would as soon be without.
1869. Lowell, Winter-evening Hymn to Fire, iv. And thy down-trod instincts savage To stealthy insurrection creep, While thy wittol masters sleep.
Hence † Wittol v. trans., to make a wittol of.
1624. Davenport, City Night-cap., I. i. He would wittal me, With a consent to my own Horns.
