different between wright vs wraith

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.

English

Etymology

First attested 1513, in a Middle Scots translation of the Aeneid.

The word has no certain etymology. J. R. R. Tolkien favored a link with writhe. Also compared are Scots warth and Old Norse v?rðr (“watcher, guardian”), whence Icelandic vörður (“guard”). See also wray/bewray, from Middle English wreien. Perhaps from wrath as a wraith is a vengeful spirit.

Pronunciation

• enPR: r?th, IPA^(key): /?e??/
• Rhymes: -e??

Noun

wraith (plural wraiths)

1. A ghost or specter, especially a person's likeness seen just after their death.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:ghost
2. (slang, African-American Vernacular, MLE) A showy motor vehicle, a ”whip”.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:automobile

Derived terms

• wraithish
• wraithful
• wraithlike

Translations

Further reading

• wraith on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• wraith in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

References