/waɪt/
OriginFrom 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.
- archaicA living creature, especially a human being.
“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.”
- Germanic, Old-NorseA supernatural being, often used in compounds such as the land-vættr which guard the land, especially the four guardians of Iceland.
- poeticA ghost, deity or other supernatural entity.
“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 glas”
“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 no”
- A wraith-like creature.
- archaicBrave, valorous, strong.
“I haue two sones that were but late made knyghtes / and the eldest hyghte sir Tirre /[…]/ and my yongest sone hyght Lauayne / and yf hit please yow / he shalle ryde with yow vnto that Iustes / and he ”
- UK, dialectal, obsoleteStrong; stout; active.
“Then spake Much the milner son, / Ever more well him betide! / ‘Take twelve of thy wight yeomen, / Well weapon’d by thy side. / Such one would thyselfë slon, / That twelve dare not abide.’”
“Ye do you to my father's stable, / Where steeds do stand baith wight and able; / Strike ane o' them upo' the back, / The swiftest will gie his head a wap.”
- The Isle of Wight.
- A sea area comprising part of the English Channel, from the southern English coast down to Normandy.
- A surname.
Formswights(plural)