Английский Этимологический словарь - whit

WHITE - O.E. hwit, from P.Gmc. *khwitaz, from PIE *kwintos/*kwindos "bright." Meaning "morally pure" was in O.E. Association with royalist causes is late 18c. Slang sense of "honorable, fair" is 1877, Amer.Eng. The racial sense (adj.) of "of those races (chiefly European or of European extraction) characterized by light complexion" is first recorded 1604. The noun in this sense ("white man, person of a race distinguished by light complexion") is from 1671. White supremacy attested from 1902; white flight is from 1967; white trash is black slang first attested 1855. White elephant (1851) is from supposed custom of the King of Siam in showing his disfavor of a courtier by giving him care of one of the sacred albino elephants, a high honor, but ruinously expensive. Whitecap is 1668 of birds, 1773 of breaking waves, 1818 of mushrooms, and 1891 for "one of a self-constituted band in U.S. who committed outrages under pretense of regulating public morals." [O.E.D.] White hope came into sporting use c.1912 in reference to the quest for a white man capable of beating champion pugilist Jack Johnson. White heat "state of intense or extreme emotion" first recorded 1839. White-collar is from 1919. Whitewash (v.) in figurative sense of "to cover up, conceal" is from 1762.