"...whit..."????
Origin:
147080; perh[aps] an alter[ation] of ME wiht
wiht origin:
From Germanic *wextiz. Cognate with Old Saxon wiht (Dutch wicht), Old High German wiht (German Wicht), Old Norse vættr (exceptional creature), vætr, véttr, or vétr (Danish vætte, Swedish vätte), Gothic (waihts).(ca. 12th c.)
[edit] Noun - wiht (plural wihtu)
creature, person, thing, being
Descendants: English: wight; whit
So here we have another example of a word used in the BoM whose origins can be traced as far back as the 12th century, but no further.
How did such a word come to be used in a book supposedly written hundreds of years earlier and never be known in another language until the Norse, Germanic and Scandinavian cultures came onto the scene?
B goin whit ya!
wist ye not