writ

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Middle English writ, iwrit, ȝewrit, from Old English writ (“letter, book, treatise; scripture, writing; writ, charter, document, deed”) and ġewrit (“writing, something written, written language; written character, bookstave; inscription; orthography; written statement, passage from a book; official or formal document, document; law, jurisprudence; regulation; list, catalog; letter; text of an agreement; writ, charter, deed; literary writing, book, treatise; books dealing with a subject under notice; a book of the Bible; scripture, canonical book, the Scriptures; stylus”), from Proto-Germanic *writą (“fissure, writing”), from Proto-Indo-European *wrey-, *wrī- (“to scratch, carve, ingrave”). Cognate with Scots writ (“writ, writing, handwriting”), Icelandic rit (“writing, writ, literary work, publication”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪt

Noun

writ (plural writs)

1. (law) A written order, issued by a court, ordering someone to do (or stop doing) something.
2. authority, power to enforce compliance
   • 2009, Stephen Gale et al., The War on Terrorism: 21st-Century Perspectives^[1], Transaction Publishers, ISBN 9781412808378, page 30:

     We can't let them take advantage of the fact that there are so many areas of the world where no one's writ runs.

3. (obsolete) that which is written; writing
   • Spenser

     Then to his hands that writ he did betake, / Which he disclosing read, thus as the paper spake.

   • Knolles

     Babylon, so much spoken of in Holy Writ

Derived terms

• drop the writ
• Holy Writ
• writ of habeas corpus

Translations

A written order

• Dutch: bevelschrift (nl), gerechterlijke opdracht, dwangbevel
• Finnish: oikeuden määräys
• German: Erlaß (de) m, Gerichtsurkunde f, Verfügung (de) f
• Italian: ordinanza (it) f, intimazione (it) f, mandato (it) m
• Japanese: 令状 (reijō)

• Mandarin: 令状 (zh) (lìngzhuàng)
• Polish: nakaz sądowy m
• Spanish: escrito (es) m, decreto judicial m, recurso (es) m, auto (es) m
• Swedish: skrivelse (sv) c

References

• Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

Verb

writ

1. (dated, nonstandard) past participle of write

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)

   • Omar Khayyam (in translation)

     The moving finger writes, and having writ, not all your piety or wit can lure it back to cancel half a line […]

Usage notes

• The form writ survives in standard dialects only in the phrase writ large, though it remains common in some dialects (e.g. Scouse).

Related terms

• writ large

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Gothic

Romanization

writ

1. Romanization of 𐍅𐍂𐌹𐍄

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Old English

Alternative forms

• ġewrit

Etymology

Proto-Germanic *writą, whence also Old High German riz, Old Norse rit

Noun

writ n

1. writ