wight

English

/waɪt/

noun
Definitions
  • (archaic) A living creature, especially a human being.
  • (paganism) A being of one of the Nine Worlds of Heathen belief, especially a nature spirit, elf or ancestor.
  • (poetic) A ghost, deity or other supernatural entity.
  • (fantasy) A wraith-like creature.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English wight inherited from Old English wiht (person, being, creature, whit, thing, something, anything, wight, human being, weight) inherited from Proto-Germanic *wihtiz (essence, object, thing) inherited from Proto-Indo-European *wekti- (cause, thing, sake).

Origin

Proto-Indo-European

*wekti-

Gloss

cause, thing, sake

Concept
Semantic Field

Cognition

Ontological Category

Person/Thing

Kanji

酎

Emoji

Timeline

Distribution of cognates by language

Geogrpahic distribution of cognates

Cognates and derived terms