mother wit
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈmʌðər wɪt/
- What a f ellow needs is a mother wit and a horsehair.
Examples
-
His quick thinking and mother wit helped them escape from difficult situations.
-
Everyone should have some mother wit.
Fiction book (1990) -
Now here was a boy with a logical mind, mother wit, and determination.
Fiction book (1992) -
The blacks should have used some kind of—not intelligence, but mother wit perhaps?
Fiction book (1996) -
It was among these men of "mother wit" that Schomburg first established his class and ethnic identity in Negro New York.
Academic text (2001) -
The mentorship of Bruce, another man of "mother wit," and Schomburg's own remarkable accomplishments as a collector gradually increased his fame in academic circles as well, bringing Schomburg no small satisfaction.
Academic text (2001) -
She solved the problem on her own using her natural mother wit.
-
After years of experience, he learned that relying on mother wit often yields the best solutions.
Synonyms
∞
3.7
Good practical judgment about what to do
257
1.8
The ability to make good decisions in everyday life
75
3.5
A mind that thinks quickly and makes sensible decisions
58
3.6
The ability to make sensible decisions in everyday life
45
4.1
Practical cleverness for solving everyday problems
14
8.1
Being brave and using common sense to act and solve problems
2
4.8
Being able to make good practical decisions in everyday life
Antonyms
How Practical
2
6.3
- Informal
100
4.4
1
9.9
257
1.8
6
6.1
50
2.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
The parts 'mother' (origin/female parent) and 'wits' (intelligence) give a clue that the phrase refers to a kind of intelligence associated with origin, so a learner could reasonably infer an innate or family-linked kind of cleverness. However, the idiomatic sense 'natural common sense one is born with' and the slightly archaic phrasing are not wholly predictable from the constituents alone, so it requires some cultural/lexical knowledge.
Etymology
Mother wit may come from the idea that a mother's practical knowledge is handed down at home, with mother showing the source and wit once meaning quick, practical sense. So the phrase means natural 'common sense' someone has without formal schooling.