0 present participle of witness
1 to see something happen, especially an accident or crime:
2 When a place or period witnesses a particular event, the event happens in that place or during that period:
This university has witnessed quite a few changes over the years.
Those years witnessed momentous changes throughout Europe.
3 to show or give proof of something:
Recent years have witnessed a growth in religious fundamentalism.
What we are witnessing is the country's slow slide into anarchy.
His face registered extreme disapproval of what he had witnessed.
It was a terrible thing to witness.
He refers, for example, to 'ethnographic witnessing ' which has a connotation of superiority associated with religion.
The most plausible explanation for our -ic and -ical pickle is that we are witnessing language change at work: a messy but fascinating business.
For their legitimacy is extraneous to any form of collective witnessing or spectacular stage management.
