wight

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: wīt, IPA: /waɪt/, SAMPA: /waIt/
• Rhymes: -aɪt
• Homophones: wite, white (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Etymology 1

From Middle English, from Old English wiht (“wight, person, creature, being, whit, thing, something, anything”), from Proto-Germanic *wihtiz (“essence, object”), from Proto-Indo-European *wekti- (“cause, sake, thing”), from Proto-Indo-European *wekʷ- (“to say, tell”). Cognate with Old High German wiht (“creature, thing”), Dutch wicht, German Wicht, Swedish vätte. See also whit.

The meaning of the wraith-like creature is from barrow-wights in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth world.

Noun

wight (plural wights)

1. (archaic) A living creature, especially a human being.
2. (paganism) A being of one of the Nine Worlds of heathen belief, especially a nature spirit, elf or ancestor.
3. (poetic) A ghost or other supernatural entity.
4. (fantasy) A wraith-like creature.

Quotations

• circa 1602, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act i, sc. 3:

  O base Hungarian wight! wilt thou the spigot wield?

• 1626, John Milton, On the Death of a Fair Infant Dying of a Cough, verse vi

  Oh say me true if thou wert mortal wight
  And why from us so quickly thou didst take thy flight.

• 1789, William Blake, A Dream, lines 14-15-16

  But I saw a glow-worm near,
  Who replied: ‘What wailing wight
  Calls the watchman of the night?

Etymology 2

From Middle English, from Old Norse vígt, neuter of vígr (“skilled in fighting, of age”), cognate with Old English wīġ.

Adjective

wight

1. (archaic except in dialects) Brave, valorous, strong.
   • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book XVIII:

     ‘if hit please you, he shall ryde with you unto that justis, for he ys of hys age stronge and wyght.’

2. (UK dialectal) Strong; stout; active.

See also

• Isle of Wight

References

• “wight” in the Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, 1974 edition.

---

Middle English

Noun

wight (plural wightes)

1. A wight.
   • 1368-1372, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Book of the Duchess, line 579:

     "Worste of alle wightes."

   • 1379-1380, Geoffrey Chaucer, The House of Fame, line 1830-1831:

     "We ben shrewes, every wight,

     And han delyt in wikkednes."