wisp
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /wɪsp/
rhymes: -ɪsp
Forms: form: wisps
Etymology: From Middle English wispe, wyspe, wips, wipse, perhaps from an unrecorded Old English *wisp, *wips. Cognate with West Frisian wisp, Dutch wisp (“bundle of hay or straw”), Norwegian bokmål/Swedish/Bornholm Danish visp (“handful or bundle of grass, hay, etc.”). Akin also to Middle Dutch/Middle Low German wispel (“measure of grain”).
Senses: examples: text: A wisp of smoke rose from the candle for a few moments after he blew it out.
text: A wisp of hair escaped her barrette and whipped wildly in the wind.
text: in a small basket, on a wisp of hay
ref: 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Third Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:
glosses: A small bundle, as of straw or other like substance; any slender, flexible structure or group.
glosses: A whisk, or small broom.
examples: text: the wisp that flickers where no foot can tread
ref: 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page number, or |part=Prologue, I to VII, or conclusion)”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:
glosses: A will o' the wisp, or ignis fatuus.
examples: text: “She would get nothing from him, she saw, resentfully. Then some angel of grace lent her a few wisps, which she grasped.
ref: 1982, Kamala Markandaya, Shalimar, Harper & Row, →ISBN, page 154:
text: Apparently it had been too much; for his sleep, though deep as death itself, was not dreamless this time, but threaded with ghostly wisps of dreams.
ref: 1987, John E. Woods, Patrick Süskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer=Das Parfum, Pocket Books, page 163:
text: He was a wisp of spirit — all his substance, the meat of his being, the coat of flesh that had always slowed him, had long since slipped away. He knew he was in two places.
ref: 2006, Paul Theroux, Blinding Light: A Novel, Mariner Book, →ISBN, page 84:
text: The morning we stood on Monte de Gozo,and saw the cathedral spires as though floating in the distance, the sun was already making its ascent into the pale sky. It was difficult for me to accept that our journey was nearly over. Santiago had grown into much more than a destiny in my mind; it was the culmination of all that it meant to be human, and I feared that my spirit, no more than a wisp on this earth, would evaporate when the clouds decided to part.
ref: 2008, Cecilia Samartin, Tarnished Beauty: A Novel, Atria Books, →ISBN, page 301:
text: We entered the shed. The thick density of the smoke made it nigh impossible to distinguish anyone. It was like seeing wisps of spirits trailing IVs, shrouded bodies on the precipice of a low-key volcano.
ref: 2011, Ken Bruen, Headstone, Mysterious Press, →ISBN, page 189:
text: A faint layer of dew lay on the freshly turned earth. It steamed slightly, where the sun touched it, wisps of ghosts rising up from the ground.
ref: 2017, Cameron Dokey, Belle, Simon Pulse, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, →ISBN, page 134:
text: Another traditional answer to the question of what makes us so different, popular for millennia, has been that humans have a non-physical soul, one that inhabits the body but is distinct from it, an ethereal ghostly wisp that floats free at death to enjoy an after-life which may include reunion with other souls, or perhaps a new body to inhabit.
ref: 2017 September 10, Nigel Warburton, “What does a portrait of Erica the android tell us about being human?”, in The Observer:
glosses: An immeasurable, indefinable essence of life; soul.
examples: text: They shift their quarters in the early part of the season very suddenly, and if a man hears of a wisp of snipe in any particular place, he must be off at once.
ref: 1861, Horace William Wheelwright, Bush Wanderings of a Naturalist, page 99:
text: A flock of snipe is given the collective name of a "wisp", perhaps due to its rapid twisting and turning before the birds drop down again.
ref: 1988, Michael Cady, Rob Hume, editors, The Complete Book of British Birds, page 158:
glosses: A flock of snipe.
glosses: A disease affecting the feet of cattle.
Derived terms: will o' the wisp