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#1 2009-06-14 08:38:08

Sandra
Member
Registered: 2009-06-14
Posts: 1

whits vs. wit's - which is it?

I saw this phrase on a local tv news station website:

”...a free respite day care for parents who are at their whits end.”
For reference, here is the URL: http://www.koaa.com/aaaa_top_stories/x1 … difference

Should this be “wit’s end” or is “whits end” proper?

Thanks!

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#2 2009-06-14 08:51:44

jorkel
Eggcornista
Registered: 2006-08-08
Posts: 1456

Re: whits vs. wit's - which is it?

For reference, we did previously discuss a wit/whit substitution in the forum…

http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/view … hp?id=2037

It might not be applicable, or it might shed some light on this discussion.

I don’t know how to activate the link, but you can copy it to your command line
or start from scratch by clicking on the “Search” option on the red menu bar
at the top of this page: A single word search of the word whit will bring up
the thread.

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#3 2009-08-20 10:03:38

jingle33
Member
Registered: 2009-08-20
Posts: 1
Website

Re: whits vs. wit's - which is it?

It is wit’s end which means the end of one’s emotional resources.


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#4 2009-10-07 13:16:29

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2712
Website

Re: whits vs. wit's - which is it?

Wouldn’t it be intellectual resources? (Your wits are more closely associated with your brains than your heart.)
.
There is the singular/plural thing to deal with. For me it could be the end of my wit or the end of my wits, thus either wit’s or wits’ end.

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2009-10-07 13:18:15)


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#5 2015-04-22 19:03:15

David Bird
Eggcornista
From: The Hammer, Ontario
Registered: 2009-07-28
Posts: 1690

Re: whits vs. wit's - which is it?

The little candle lighting my way is guttering and will soon go out. I’m at my wick’s end.

Its heartbreaking and really I am at my wicks end!
baby troubles

Im at my wick’s end. Im so exhausted
baby troubles

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#6 2015-04-23 02:36:21

JuanTwoThree
Eggcornista
From: Spain
Registered: 2009-08-15
Posts: 455

Re: whits vs. wit's - which is it?

I am a 150 pounds female, 5ft7, 21yrs And I wanna reach my ideal weight of 138 which is safe. I am at my width’s end with trying to lose weight

I was at my width’s end and was so close to punching him.

“And you know what; I’m about at my width’s end with trying to hide it, when there isn’t any point.”

I’d like to think I’m pretty patient but I was at my width’s end with life…... But hey, jail is kind of relaxing, in a way.

The first one may be a pun, but the others seem genuine eggcorns.

Last edited by JuanTwoThree (2015-04-23 02:37:39)


On the plain in Spain where it mainly rains.

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#7 2015-04-23 13:17:24

Peter Forster
Eggcornista
From: UK
Registered: 2006-09-06
Posts: 1222

Re: whits vs. wit's - which is it?

As well as the flickering of flame and the lineaments of fatness, there remains fatigue and flaccidity:

Ok I’m at my wilt’s end. Even getting my teaching cert. sounds really good right now.

policeman is at his wilts end to cap ture the bold band of pyromianiacs. While every New Yorker knows that no braver, better men ever stood in shoe leather than …

The idea was eagerly seized up- on, not only by the officers who were at their wilt’s end to know what to do, but by the Loyalists themselves. They were weary …

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