E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Wit’ham.
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.
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“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.)
