Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—W

Witham

You were born, I suppose, at Little Witham. A reproof to a noodle. The pun, of course, is on little wit. Witham is in Lincolnshire.

“I will be sworn she was not born at Wittham, for Gaffer Gibbs says she could not turn up a single lesson like a Christian” — Sir Walter Scott Heart of Mid-Lothian, chap. xxxii.

Puns of this sort are very common. (See Bedfordshire, Nod, Dunce, Cripplegate, Shanks' Nag etc.)

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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