whisht

English

Alternative forms

• wheesht, weesht
• whish
• whist

Etymology

From Middle English qwyst, whisht, whist, imitative, though perhaps influenced by other verbs in wh- used in the imperative or by hust (adjective).

Interjection

whisht

1. (Ireland; British, especially Scotland, Northumbria) Shush, silence, be quiet!
   • 1952, Neville Shute, chapter 9, in The Far Country‎^[1], London: Heinemann:

     “You must have loved him very much,” she said.
     “Whisht,” said the old woman, “there’s a word that you must never use until there's marrying between you […] ”

2. A sound often used to calm livestock, cattle, sheep etc.

Translations

shush, silence, be quiet

• Finnish: hys (fi)
• Scottish Gaelic: ist

a sound often used to calm livestock, cattle, sheep etc.

See also

• wisht

References

• Frank Graham, editor (1987), “WHISHT”, in The New Geordie Dictionary, Rothbury, Northumberland: Butler Publishing, →ISBN.

Scots

Alternative forms

• wheesht

Etymology

From Scottish Gaelic èist (“listen, harken”).

Interjection

whisht

1. a call for silence, hush!
   • 1883, Margaret Oliphant, It was a Lover and his Lass‎^[2], page 49:

     Whisht, bairns! mind it’s the Sabbath day.

     Hush, children! Remember that it’s the Sabbath day.

Verb

whisht (third-person singular simple present whishts, present participle whishtin, simple past whishtit, past participle whishtit)

1. to call for silence, to say whisht
2. (transitive) to silence (someone)
3. (intransitive) to be silent
   • 1819, Walter Scott, The Bride of Lammermoor:

     Whisht, sir!—whisht, and let me speak just ae word that I couldna say afore folk

     Hush, sir! Be silent and let me say just one thing that I could not say in front of other people

Noun

whisht (plural whishts)

1. (usually negative) a slight sound, a whisper
   • 1880, R.M. Ballantyne, “The Thorogood family”, in Life & Work‎^[3], page 80:

     I’ll no make a whisht. Only let me bide near till him.

     I won’t make a whisper, if you’ll just let me wait near him.

2. (rare, poetic) silence

Derived terms

• keep one's whisht (“to hold one's tongue”)

Adjective

whisht (not comparable)

1. (archaic) hushed, quiet

References

• “Whisht, interj., v., n., adj.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.