writ
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
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[edit]
Noun[edit]
writ (countable and uncountable, plural writs)
- (law) A written order, issued by a court, ordering someone to do (or stop doing) something.
- Authority, power to enforce compliance.
- 2009, Stephen Gale et al., The War on Terrorism: 21st-Century Perspectives[1], Transaction Publishers, →ISBN, 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.
- 1913, Elizabeth Kimball Kendall, A Wayfarer in China
- Within Lololand, of course, no Chinese writ runs, no Chinese magistrate holds sway, and the people, more or less divided among themselves, are under the government of their tribal chiefs.
- (archaic) That which is written; writing.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book I, canto XII, stanza 25:
- Then to his hands that writ he did betake, / Which he disclosing, red thus, as the paper spake.
- 1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip, OCLC 837543169:
- Babylon, so much spoken of in Holy Writ
Synonyms[edit]
- claim form (English law)
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
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References[edit]
- 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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for writ in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)
Verb[edit]
writ
- (archaic) past tense of write
- c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene iv]:
- I know the hand: in faith, 'tis a fair hand;
And whiter than the paper it writ on
Is the fair hand that writ.
- (archaic) past participle of write
- c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene iv]:
- I know the hand: in faith, 'tis a fair hand;
And whiter than the paper it writ on
Is the fair hand that writ.
- 1682, John Dryden, Mac Flecknoe[2]
- Let Virtuosos in five years be writ; / Yet not one thought accuse thy toil of wit.
- 1859, Omar Khayyam, Edward Fitzgerlad (translattor), Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
- The moving finger writes, and having writ, not all your piety or wit can lure it back to cancel half a line […]
- 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter I, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar […], OCLC 928184292, book IV:
- For as this is the liquor of modern historians, nay, perhaps their muse, if we may believe the opinion of Butler, who attributes inspiration to ale, it ought likewise to be the potation of their readers, since every book ought to be read with the same spirit and in the same manner as it is writ.
- 1971, “Life on Mars?”, performed by David Bowie:
- But the film is a saddening bore
'Cause I wrote it ten times or more
It's about to be writ again
Usage notes[edit]
- The form writ survives in standard dialects in the phrase writ large as well as in works aiming for an intentionally poetic or archaic style. It remains common in some dialects (e.g. Scouse).
Derived terms[edit]
Anagrams[edit]
Gothic[edit]
Romanization[edit]
writ
- Romanization of 𐍅𐍂𐌹𐍄
Old English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Proto-Germanic *writą, whence also Old High German riz, Old Norse rit.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
writ n (nominative plural writu)
Declension[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɪt
- Rhymes:English/ɪt/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Law
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with archaic senses
- English non-lemma forms
- English verb forms
- en:Directives
- Gothic non-lemma forms
- Gothic romanizations
- Old English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Old English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Old English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Old English lemmas
- Old English nouns
- Old English neuter nouns
- Old English neuter a-stem nouns