wisdom

From Middle English wisdom, from Old English wīsdōm, from Proto-West Germanic *wīsadōm, from Proto-Germanic *wīsadōmaz, formed from wise plus the suffix -dom. It shares this root with Scots wisdom, West Frisian wiisdom, Dutch wijsdom, German Weistum, the Scandinavian visdom words, and Icelandic vísdómur.

The word has kept a remarkably stable shape and sense from Old English onward, staying tied to its plain building blocks of 'wise' plus '-dom.'

It's cognate with German Weistum, which took a narrower turn to mean a legal sentence or judgment — a reminder that 'wise' judgment and legal judgment once sat close together.