different between sight vs wight

English

Etymology

From Middle English si?ht, si?t, siht, from Old English siht, sihþ (“something seen; vision”), from Proto-West Germanic *sihti, equivalent to see +? -th. Cognate with Scots sicht, Saterland Frisian Sicht, West Frisian sicht, Dutch zicht, German Low German Sicht, German Sicht, Danish sigte, Swedish sikte.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -a?t
• enPR: s?t, IPA^(key): /sa?t/
• Rhymes: -a?t
• Homophones: cite, site

Noun

sight (countable and uncountable, plural sights)

1. (in the singular) The ability to see.
2. The act of seeing; perception of objects by the eye; view.

   • And when hee had spoken these things, while they beheld, hee was taken vp, and a cloud receiued him out of their sight.

3. Something seen.
   • 2005, Lesley Brown (translator), Plato (author), Sophist, 236d:

     He's a really remarkable man and it's very hard to get him in one's sights; […]

4. Something worth seeing; a spectacle, either good or bad.

   • And Moses saide, I will nowe turne aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, Prothalamion

     They never saw a sight so fair.

5. A device used in aiming a projectile, through which the person aiming looks at the intended target.
6. A small aperture through which objects are to be seen, and by which their direction is settled or ascertained.
7. (now colloquial) a great deal, a lot; frequently used to intensify a comparative.

   • A nombre of twenty sterres bright,
     Which is to sene a wonder sight

   • 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 2

     "If your mother put you in the pit at twelve, it's no reason why I should do the same with my lad."

     "Twelve! It wor a sight afore that!"

8. In a drawing, picture, etc., that part of the surface, as of paper or canvas, which is within the frame or the border or margin. In a frame, the open space, the opening.
9. (obsolete) The instrument of seeing; the eye.
10. Mental view; opinion; judgment.
    • That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

Synonyms

• (ability to see): sense of sight, vision
• (something seen): view
• (aiming device): scope, peep sight

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

sight (third-person singular simple present sights, present participle sighting, simple past and past participle sighted)

1. (transitive) To register visually.
2. (transitive) To get sight of (something).

3. (transitive) To apply sights to; to adjust the sights of; also, to give the proper elevation and direction to by means of a sight.

4. (transitive) To take aim at.

Synonyms

• (visually register): see
• (get sight of): espy, glimpse, spot
• (take aim): aim at, take aim at

Derived terms

• resight

Translations

See also

• see
• vision

Anagrams

• ghits, thigs, tighs

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: w?t, IPA^(key): /wa?t/
• Rhymes: -a?t
• Homophones: wite, white (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Etymology 1

From Middle English wight, wi?t, from Old English wiht (“wight, person, creature, being, whit, thing, something, anything”), from Proto-Germanic *wihtiz (“essence, object”), from Proto-Indo-European *wekti- (“cause, sake, thing”), from *wek?- (“to say, tell”). Cognate with Scots wicht (“creature, being, human”), Dutch wicht (“child, baby”), German Low German Wicht (“girl; wight”), German Wicht (“wretch, wight, little creature, scoundrel”), Norwegian Bokmål vette (“underground creature, gnome”), Swedish vätte (“underground creature, gnome”), Icelandic vættur (“imp, elf”). Doublet of whit.

Noun

wight (plural wights)

1. (archaic) A living creature, especially a human being.
   • Template:RQ:Shakespeare Merry Wives of Windsor
   • 1626, John Milton, On the Death of a Fair Infant Dying of a Cough, verse vi

     Oh say me true if thou wert mortal wight
     And why from us so quickly thou didst take thy flight.

   • c. 1872, a Knight's tour cryptotour poem, possibly by Howard Staunton, lines 1 and 2:

     "The man that hath no love of chess/Is truth to say a sorry wight."

   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 532:

     […] Alaeddin ate and drank and was cheered and after he had rested and had recovered spirits he cried, "Ah, O my mother, I have a sore grievance against thee for leaving me to that accursed wight who strave to compass my destruction and designed to take my life. Know that I beheld Death with mine own eyes at the hand of this damned wretch, whom thou didst certify to be my uncle; […]

2. (paganism) A being of one of the Nine Worlds of Heathen belief, especially a nature spirit, elf or ancestor.
3. (poetic) A ghost, deity or other supernatural entity.
   • 1789, William Blake, A Dream, lines 14-16:

     But I saw a glow-worm near, / Who replied: ‘What wailing wight / Calls the watchman of the night?

   • 1869, William Morris and Eiríkr Magnússon (translators), Grettis Saga: The Story of Grettir the Strong, F. S. Ellis, page 49:

     Everything in their way was kicked out of place, the barrow-wight setting on with hideous eagerness; Grettir gave back before him for a long time, till at last it came to this, that he saw it would not do to hoard his strength any more; now neither spared the other, and they were brought to where the horse-bones were, and thereabout they wrestled long.

4. (fantasy) A wraith-like creature.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English wight, from Old Norse vígt, neuter of vígr (“skilled in fighting, of age”), from Proto-Germanic *w?gaz (“fighting”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyk- (“to fight”). Cognate with Old English w??.

Adjective

wight

1. (archaic, except in dialects) Brave, valorous, strong.
2. (Britain dialectal, obsolete) Strong; stout; active.

See also

• Isle of Wight

References

• “wight” in the Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, 1974 edition.

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English wiht

Alternative forms

• wighte, wygh?t, wi?t, wi?te, whi?t, whytt, whighte, wyght, why?t, wyt, wiht, wihht, whi?t, wei?tt, wy?t, wy?te, wyhte, wyte, wicht

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wixt/, /?ixt/
• Rhymes: -ixt

Noun

wight (plural wightes or wighten)

1. A creature, a being.
2. A person, a human being.
   • 1368-1372, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Book of the Duchess, line 579:

     "Worste of alle wightes."

   • 1379-1380, Geoffrey Chaucer, The House of Fame, line 1830-1831:

     "We ben shrewes, every wight,

     And han delyt in wikkednes."

3. A demon, monster
4. A small amount (of a quantity, length, distance or time); a whit.

Descendants

• English: wight, whit
• Scots: wicht

References

• “wight, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-04.

Etymology 2

From Old Norse vígt. See vígr (“ready to fight”).

Alternative forms

• wihte, wict, wi?ht, wy?te, wyght, why?t, wy?t, white, vight, wi?hte, weight, vit

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wixt/, /wikt/

Adjective

wight (comparative wighter, superlative wightest)

1. brave, bold
2. powerful, strong, vigorous
3. quick, speedy

Descendants

• English: wight (obsolete or dialectal)

References

• “wight, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-04.

Adverb

wight

1. immediately
2. vigorously

References

• “wight, adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-04.