wight
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: fantasy
lifestyle
paganism
religion
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.
Inflected forms:
form: wights
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: A living creature, especially a human being.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
examples: O bace gongarian wight, wilt thou the ſpicket willd?
Oh ſay me true if thou wert mortal wight
And why from us ſo quickly thou didſt take thy flight.
But woe betide the wandering wight, / That treads its circle in the night.
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.
Some gamesome wights will tell you that they have to plant weeds there, they don’t grow naturally; [...]
"Who is the miserable little wight?" he asked. He was told her name and dignity.
The man that hath no love of chess/Is truth to say a sorry wight.
[…]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;[…]
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.
gloss: A supernatural being, often used in compounds such as the land-vættr which guard the land, especially the four guardians of Iceland.
pos: noun
tags: Germanic
Old-Norse
gloss: A ghost, deity or other supernatural entity.
pos: noun
tags: poetic
examples: But I saw a glow-worm near, / Who replied: ‘What wailing wight / Calls the watchman of the night?
“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.”
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.
gloss: A wraith-like creature.
pos: noun
Derived words: barrow-wight
housewight
landwight
seawight
Translations: