wraith

English

Etymology

The first attestation dates to 1513, in Alexander Douglas' translation of the Roman poet Virgil's book the Aeneid ("Nor git na vane wrathis nor gaistis quent Thi char constrenyt for to went", "In diuers placis The wraithis walkis of goistis that ar deyd"; cited after OED).

The word has no certain etymology. J. R. R. Tolkien favoured a connection with writhe. Also compared is Scottish Gaelic warth and Old Norse vörðr (“watcher, guardian”). See wray/wreien and bewray; therefore "fama..figuras" becomes "wraithis".

Pronunciation

• enPR: rāth, IPA: /ɹeɪθ/, SAMPA: /r\eIT/

  Rhymes: -eɪθ

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

wraith (plural wraiths)

1. A ghost or specter, especially seen just after a person's death.
   • Like wraiths with the impediments of bodies they stumbled in the direction of Salthill faces. Middle Age: A Romance (2001) by Joyce Carol Oates (Fourth Estate, paperback edition, 80)

• 1513, Gawin Douglas, “XI”, in The Æneid of Virgil: Translated into Scottish Verse^[1], The Tenth Buke, edition The Bannatyne Club, Edinburgh: T Constable, translation of Virgilii Eneados by Publi Vergili Maronis, published 1839, line 95, page 646:

  The wraithis walkis of goistis that ar ded,

• 1697, John Dryden, John Carey editor, The Works of Virgil: Containing his Pastorals, Georgics, and Aeneis.^[2], The Tenth Book of the Æneis, edition a new edition, London: Strand, translation of Aeneidos by Publi Vergili Maronis, published 1806, line 908:

  (Thus haunting ghosts appear to waking sight,

• 1908, Theodore C. Williams, The Æneid of Virgil: Translated into English Verse^[3], Book X, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., translation of Aeneidos by Publi Vergili Maronis, line 644, page 358:

  The hovering phantoms of the dead put on,

• 1961, Allen Mandelbaum, The Aeneid of Virgil^[4], Book X, edition Bantam Classic reissue, New York: Bantam Dell, translation of Aeneidos by Publi Vergili Maroni, published 2004, line 882, page 260:

  like forms that—it is said—hover when death

• 2006, Robert Fagles, The Aeneid: Virgil^[5], Book Ten: Captains Fight and Die, New York: Viking Penguin, translation of Aeneidos by Publi Vergili Maronis, line 762, page 315:

  Like ghosts that after our death, they say, will flutter on

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:ghost

Derived terms

• wraithish
• wraithful
• wraithlike

Translations

A ghost or specter, especially seen just after a person's death

Finnish: henki (fi), haamu (fi) Russian: призрак (ru) m. Scottish Gaelic: sgàile (gd) f., tannasg (gd) m., taibhse (gd) m. and f.

Serbian: утвара (sr) (utvara) f., приказа (sr) (prikaza) f.

See also

• Wraith on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• wraith in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.