wight
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: wīt
ipa: /waɪt/
rhymes: -aɪt
homophone: wite
homophone: white (wine–whine merger)
Forms: form: wights
Etymology: From Middle English wight, wiȝt, from Old English wiht (“thing, creature”), from Proto-West Germanic *wihti, from Proto-Germanic *wihtiz (“thing, creature”, literally “being”), from Proto-Indo-European *wekti- (“cause, sake, thing”), from *wekʷ- (“to say, tell”).
Cognate with Scots wicht (“creature, being, human”), Dutch wicht (“child, baby, girl”), German Low German Wicht (“girl; wight”), German Wicht (“wretch, wight, little creature, scoundrel”), Danish vætte (“underground creature, gnome”), Norwegian Bokmål vette (“underground creature, gnome”), Swedish vätte (“underground creature, gnome”), Icelandic vættur (“imp, elf”). Doublet of whit.
Senses: examples: text: O bace gongarian wight, wilt thou the ſpicket willd?
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, […] [T]he Merrie Wiues of Windsor. […] (First Quarto), London: […] T[homas] C[reede] for Arthur Ihonson, […], published 1602, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], signature B, verso:
text: Oh ſay me true if thou wert mortal wight
And why from us ſo quickly thou didſt take thy flight.
ref: 1624 (date written), John Milton, “On the Death of a Fair Infant Dying of a Cough”, in Poems, &c. upon Several Occasions, London: […] Tho[mas] Dring […], published 1673, →OCLC, stanza VI, page 19:
text: But woe betide the wandering wight, / That treads its circle in the night.
ref: 1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “Canto Third. The Hostel, or Inn.”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, →OCLC, stanza XXV, page 157:
text: In this by-place of nature there abode, in a remote period of American history, that is to say, some thirty years since, a worthy wight of the name of Ichabod Crane, who sojourned, or, as he expressed it, "tarried," in Sleepy Hollow, for the purpose of instructing the children of the vicinity.
ref: 1820 March 5, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number VI, New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC, page 57:
text: Some gamesome wights will tell you that they have to plant weeds there, they don’t grow naturally; [...]
ref: 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Nantucket”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 69:
text: "Who is the miserable little wight?" he asked. He was told her name and dignity.
ref: c. 1855, Charlotte Brontë, “Emma. (A Fragment of a Story by the Late Charlotte Brontë.)”, in The Cornhill Magazine, volume I, number 4, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published April 1860, →OCLC, chapter I, page 491:
text: The man that hath no love of chess/Is truth to say a sorry wight.
ref: c. 1872, a Knight's tour cryptotour poem, possibly by Howard Staunton, lines 1 and 2
text: […]Alaeddin ate and drank and was cheered and after he had rested and had recovered spirits he cried, "Ah, O my mother, I have a sore grievance against thee for leaving me to that accursed wight who strave to compass my destruction and designed to take my life. Know thou that I beheld Death with mine own eyes at the hand of this damned wretch, whom thou didst certify to be my uncle;[…]
ref: 1887, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “Alaeddin; or, The Wonderful Lamp. [Night 532.]”, in Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume III, [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC, page 82:
text: He called Worsel, and, upon being informed that the recorders were ready, he started in. Characteristically, he began with Prellin of Bronseca, and memorized the data covering that wight as he transmitted it.
ref: 1939 December, E[dward] E[lmer] Smith, “Gray Lensman”, in Astounding Science-Fiction, volume XXIV, number 4, New York, N.Y.: Street & Smith Publications, Inc., part III, chapter XVIII, page 159, column 2:
glosses: A living creature, especially a human being.
topics: lifestyle
paganism
religion
glosses: A supernatural being, often used in compounds such as the land-vættr which guard the land, especially the four guardians of Iceland.
examples: text: But I saw a glow-worm near, / Who replied: ‘What wailing wight / Calls the watchman of the night?
ref: 1789, William Blake, A Dream, lines 14–16:
text: “In judging of that tempestuous wind called Euroclydon,” says an old writer—of whose works I possess the only copy extant—“it maketh a marvellous difference, whether thou lookest out at it from a glass window where the frost is all on the outside, or whether thou observest it from that sashless window, where the frost is on both sides, and of which the wight Death is the only glazier.”
ref: 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 2, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 10:
text: Everything in their way was kicked out of place, the barrow-wight setting on with hideous eagerness; Grettir gave back before him for a long time, till at last it came to this, that he saw it would not do to hoard his strength any more; now neither spared the other, and they were brought to where the horse-bones were, and thereabout they wrestled long.
ref: 1869, William Morris, Eiríkr Magnússon, transl., Grettis Saga: The Story of Grettir the Strong, F. S. Ellis, page 49:
glosses: A ghost, deity or other supernatural entity.
topics: fantasy
glosses: A wraith-like creature.
Derived terms: barrow-wight
housewight
landwight
seawight