different between wight vs wright

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.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?a?t/
• Rhymes: -a?t
• Homophones: right, rite, write

Etymology 1

From Middle English wrighte, wri?te, wruhte, wurhte, from Old English wyrhta (“worker; wright; workman; artificer; laborer; craftsman”), from Proto-West Germanic *wurhtij? (as in *wurkijan?), from Proto-Indo-European *wer?- (“to work”) (English work). Cognate with wrought, dated Dutch wrecht.

Noun

wright (plural wrights)

1. (obsolete) A builder or maker of something.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Verb

wright (third-person singular simple present wrights, present participle wrighting, simple past and past participle wrighted)

1. (dated) Misspelling of write.