wise

i. [Etym. unknown.) To lean from the perpendicular, as a spinning top while spinning. wişe'-ā-cre (cre as ker), s. [O. Dut. wij egger =a wise-sayer, from Ger. we is sager, from M. H. Ger. wizagón, wizsagen, wi agen, a soothsayer, a prophet, from wizago =a prophet, from O. H. Ger. wiz an; A. S. witan (Lat. video)=to see. Hence the true meaning is a soothsayer; the O. H. Ger. wizago corresponding to A. S. witega, witiga =a prophet.] *1. A learned or wise man; a sayer of wise things. "Pythagoras lerned muche, be com ming a myghtye wyseacre."- Leland. 2. One who makes pretensions to great learning or wisdom; hence, contemptuously or ironically, a would-be wise person, a fool, a simpleton. "There were, at that time, on the bench of justices many Sir Paul Either sides, hard, unfeeling, superstitious wiseacres."-Ben Jonson: The Devil is an A , v. 5. (Note 1.)