Wit

A wit is one gifted at cunning repartee, puns and wordplay, as in If they said he was a wit, they'd be half right.

Wit is also used to describe a more refined form of humour. Wit, as opposed to its coarser cousins such as ribaldry, was particularly popular in Renaissance Italy.

Examples of Italian Renaissance Wit

A man when asked why the hair on his head was white, and yet his beard was black replied that this was not particularly surprising as the hair in his beard was twenty years younger.

A man jailed for gambling complained that "The mayor has imprisoned me for gambling with my own money. What on earth would he have done to me if I had gambled with his?"