Etymology

Usually derived from ON, cp. OIcel vitna 'witness, attest', a wk. v. formed on the widespread root *wit- (as in the PGmc preterite-present v. *witan- 'to know', cp. wītan- 'to see, blame', also derived from *wait-); cp. also OIcel vitni (neut. n.) 'witness, testimony'. OE also had a similar derivative form, (ge)witnes (fem. n.) 'knowledge, witness, testimony', which Dance (2003: 385) notes also could have influenced this word, and there does seem to be some confusion (so MED) with the ME v. witnessen, formed on the n.

PGmc Ancestor

*wit-

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

vitna 'witness, attest'
(ONP vitna (vb.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far vitna, Icel vitna, Norw vitna, Dan vidne, Sw vittne

OE Cognate

cp. (ge)witnes 'knowledge, witness, testimony'

Phonological and morphological markers

Summary category

CC1

Attestation

First cited by MED from c1230(?a1200) Ancr. (Corp-C 402) and fairly widespread in ME.

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

WA 488, 916, 1439 etc.

The D MS of WA reads <witnesse> at 1592 (on confusion with ME witnessen, see etymological discussion), where the A MS has the variant reading tellis; TPD (1715n) emend to *witnes, arguing in favour of the D MS reading because it provides the non-alliterative final stress.  At 916 the A MS reads 'as þe buke witnes'; this is emended to the D reading 'as [sais me þe text]' by TPD to restore the alliteration.  Similarly, at 5479 TPD emend to 'as þe [text witnes]', in place of MS (A) 'as þe buke tellis'.

Bibliography

MED witnen (v.) , OED witne (v.) , HTOED , Bj. 258, de Vries vitna, Mag. vitna, AEW witnes