From PIE *kweyd- (bright, to shine) — same root as Sanskrit 'sveta' and, surprisingly, English 'wheat.'
Of the colour of milk or fresh snow, reflecting nearly all wavelengths of visible light without absorbing any.
From Old English 'hwit' (white, bright, shining), from Proto-Germanic *hwītaz (white, bright), from PIE *kʷeyd- meaning 'to shine, to be bright, to gleam.' The same root generates Sanskrit 'sveta' (white, bright), Avestan 'spaeta' (white), Old Church Slavonic 'svetu' (light), and Lithuanian 'sviesti' (to shine). In Proto-Germanic the root also gave rise