writ

English

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

• IPA^(key): /ɹɪt/
• 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. (archaic) 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

Synonyms

• claim form (English law)

Translations

a written order

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 令狀 (zh), 令状 (zh) (lìngzhuàng)

• Czech: písemný příkaz m
• Dutch: bevelschrift (nl), gerechterlijke opdracht, dwangbevel (nl)
• Finnish: oikeuden määräys
• French: ordonnance (fr) f
• German: Erlaß (de) m, Gerichtsurkunde f, Verfügung (de) f
• Italian: ordinanza (it) f, intimazione (it) f, mandato (it) m

• Japanese: 令状 (れいじょう, reijō)
• Korean: 영장 (ko) (yeongjang)
• Maori: tāmana
• Polish: nakaz sądowy m
• Portuguese: mandado (pt) m
• Russian: прика́з (ru) m (prikáz), распоряже́ние суда́ n (rasporjažénije sudá)
• Spanish: escrito (es) m, decreto judicial m, recurso (es) m, auto (es) m
• Swedish: skrivelse (sv) c

authority, power to enforce compliance

• Czech: pověření n, mandát m

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. (archaic, nonstandard) past tense of write
2. (archaic, nonstandard) past participle of write
   • John Dryden

     Let Virtuosos in five years be writ; / Yet not one thought accuse thy toil of wit. (Mac Flecknoe)

   • 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 […]

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter I, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, 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.

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

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

Noun

writ n

1. writ

Declension

Declension of writ (strong a-stem)

Case	Singular	Plural
nominative	writ	writu
accusative	writ	writu
genitive	writes	writa
dative	write	writum