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...and if not, where'd it go? One obvious venture is that the noun "wit", in the sense of cleverness and general know-how, has an etymological affinity with the Old English witen, "to know", and which Merriam-Webster informs me the "wit" in to wit is a conjugation of. I can kinda-sorta see it, but the connection isn't very transparent to me. However, I can certainly appeal to the learnèd scholars here! Are there any other surviving words witen bears etymological affinities to?

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“witen” is actually Middle English; the Old English infinitive is “witan”. – Jonathan Sterling Apr 25 '11 at 0:27

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up vote 13 down vote accepted

"witness" is one.

As you already mentioned "to wit" is from an old Saxon root. I can see some link with the German "wissen" (also to know), Dutch "weten" and (I'm told) Danish "Vide" .

As in many languages "to see" and "to know" are interrelated concepts. So that "to wit" is not only about knowledge but witnessing.

On the knowledge side, it is also easy to see the link with wise and witty and wittingly.

The "Witan" being the Anglo Saxon assembly of wise men - knowing enough to have their word in the destiny of the community.

"wittingly": knowingly.

update
Following mplungjan's comment, I read that the common root would be the Sanskrit "veda" (knowledge), which also yielded Latin "videre" (again "see" and "know").
All of these forms (including the Sanskrit) come from the Proto-Indo-European word *weid- (credits to Kosmonaut)

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@Alain Pannetier Another great answer Alain -- I see you are determined to utterly crush this forum :) And I beg your pardon that it's "easy to see"; I certainly didn't recognize the "wise" connection off the top of my head. – Billare Mar 13 '11 at 7:06
@Alain Pannetier BTW, I hope you don't mind if I ask what you received training in? Your name sounds of French origin -- so how is it that a Frenchman comes to know so much about the English language? – Billare Mar 13 '11 at 7:08
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@Billare. I've updated my profile. It is now all too conspicuous that I haven't got any other literary background than that of an elder IT professional and languages hobbyist, redeemed maybe by a pathological and unquenchable curiosity. – Alain Pannetier Φ Mar 13 '11 at 7:48
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@mplungjan. Thanks. your comment made me curious, because "Vide" is so close to Latin "videre" (see). So I looked it up and it turns out that the common root would be the sanscrit "veda" (kowledge !!!) so that we have now traced it back to Indo-europeans. I'll update the answer accordingly. – Alain Pannetier Φ Mar 13 '11 at 7:55
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@Alain Pannetier: The common root is not the Sanskrit word; as you can see, Indo-Iranian branched in a different direction from Germanic from the very early stages of Indo-European, so it is extremely unlikely for Sanskrit to be the root for Germanic or Italic words. All of these forms (including the Sanskrit) come from the Proto-Indo-European word *weid-. – Kosmonaut Mar 13 '11 at 13:12
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up vote 2 down vote

The word wit is from Old English. According to Etymonline:

"know," O.E. witan "to know," from P.Gmc. *witanan "to have seen," hence "to know" (cf. O.S. witan, O.N. vita, O.Fris. wita, M.Du., Du. weten, O.H.G. wizzan, Ger. wissen, Goth. witan "to know"); see wit (n.). The phrase to wit, almost the only surviving use of the verb, is first recorded 1570s, from earlier that is to wit (mid-14c.), probably a loan-translation of Anglo-Fr. cestasavoir, used to render L. videlicet (see viz.).

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The NOAD reports that witan (another term for witenagemot) derives from the Old English plural of wita (wise man).
In that case, you can say there is another word that is related to the Old English wit.

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Both those terms (witan and witenagemot) refer to the proto-Parliament that comprised the advisory body to the king in the years before the two conquests of England in the 11th Century (the first one Danish, the second Norman). Witenagemot literally means "Meeting of the Wise Ones". – Robusto Mar 13 '11 at 5:35
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@Robusto Shoulda made that an answer ;) – Billare Mar 13 '11 at 6:54
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In addition to ones already mentioned:

inwit - mind, reason, intellect, understanding
witcraft - logic, reasoning
witful — wise; sensible
witling- a person with little wit
witter - knowing, certain, sure, wis; to make sure, inform, or declare.
witticism - a witty remark
wittiness
wittol - an acquiescent cuckold.

There are more in Middle English that I don't think are to be found in Modern English.

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In addition to the above: 'nitwit', 'unwitting', 'unwittingly', and the verb 'outwit' – user18792 Mar 5 '12 at 17:08

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