different between bight vs ight

English

Etymology

From Middle English bight, bi?t, by?t (also bought, bowght, bou?t, see bought), from Old English byht (“bend, angle, corner; bay, bight”), from Proto-Germanic *buhtiz (“bend, curve”), from Proto-Indo-European *b??g?- (“to bend”). Cognate with Scots bicht (“bight”), Dutch bocht (“bend, curve”), Low German Bucht (“bend, bay”), German Bucht (“bay, bight”), Danish bugt (“bay”), Icelandic bugða (“curve”), Albanian butë (“soft, flabby”) . Compare bought.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ba?t/
• Rhymes: -a?t
• Homophones: bite, by't, byte

Noun

bight (plural bights)

1. A corner, bend, or angle; a hollow

   the bight of a horse's knee

   the bight of an elbow

   • 1905, Robert Louis Stevenson, Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, page 166

     I spied a bight of meadow some way below the roadway in an angle of the river.

2. An area of sea lying between two promontories, larger than a bay, wider than a gulf
3. (geography) A bend or curve in a coastline, river, or other geographical feature.
4. A curve in a rope

Related terms

• Bight of Benin
• Bight of Biafra
• German Bight
• Great Australian Bight
• New York Bight

Translations

See also

• Appendix:Parts of the knot

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English iht, ei?t, e?te, æihte, from Old English ?ht (“possessions, property, riches”), from Proto-Germanic *aihtiz, from Proto-Indo-European *?yk- (“to have, own, be able to”).

Noun

ight (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) possession

Alternative forms

• eight, aught

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Contraction

ight

1. (slang) Alternative form of aight

References

• “Ight” listed on page 30 of volume V (H–K), § ii (I) of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles [1st ed., 1901]
  ??Ight, var. eighte, Aught sb.¹?Obs., possession.?[¶]?1390 Gower Conf. II. 378 This Priamus had in his ight [MS. Fairfax 3 yhte] A wife and Hecuba she hight.
• “ight” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2nd ed., 1989]

Anagrams

• ghit, gith, thig, tigh