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Etymology and origin of the English word wight

Pronunciation

wight1 creature, being

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 725 Beowulf
Inherited from
Old English wiht via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *wihtiz

Etymology

The noun for a creature is inherited from Middle English wight, also wiht,[2] inherited from Old English wiht (“living being, creature; thing”),[3][4][5][6] from Proto-Germanic *wihtiz.[5][1] Its cognates include Old Saxon wiht (“thing, plural demons”), Middle Low German wicht (“thing, creature, demon”), Dutch wicht (“little child”), Old High German wiht (“creature, being, thing”), German Wicht (“creature, infant”), Old Norse vættr (“creature, thing”) and Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌹𐌷𐍄𐍃 (waihts, “thing”).[3][4][6][7] Watkins and Etymonline trace it to Proto-Indo-European *wekti- (“thing, creature”),[5][8] and Klein names an Old Church Slavonic word for "thing" as its only cognate outside Germanic,[7] but Barnhart calls the Germanic form of unknown origin, and the OED and the Shorter Oxford call its further connections uncertain.[3][4][9] The same Old English noun survives in aught, naught and nought,[4][5] and whit is a doublet of it.[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A living being, a creature: Barnhart dates Old English wiht to about 725, in Beowulf;[3] the OED's first quotation is from Alfred's translation of Boethius.[4] In Old English it was also used of unnatural or uncanny creatures,[5] and of any amount at all, "something, anything".[5][4]

Semantic evolution

In Old English and Middle English the word was used, usually with an adjective, of supernatural or unearthly beings, a use the OED records until 1894.[4] Trench notes that it lost this sense with the decline of the old beliefs, so that wight, like elf, lost its weight and came to be used only slightingly of people, and quotes Chaucer's Miller's Tale for the older use.[10] The narrower sense of a human being appears in Middle English, about 1175 in the Ormulum,[4][3] and was widely used in literature from Chaucer through Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, Scott and Wordsworth.[3] It is now archaic or dialectal, often with a note of contempt or pity.[4][11] In Scotland, the north of England, Yorkshire and Cornwall it was still used in the 19th century for a person or fellow, also contemptuously.[12] In Old and Middle English, phrases such as no wight and any wight meant "no amount" or "any length of time", until 1488.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 725 – Old English wiht, a living being, in Beowulf.[3]
  • Old English – a supernatural or unearthly being (now rare).[4]
  • c. 1175 – a human being, in the Ormulum.[4][3]
  • c. 1399 – a personified thing, in Chaucer.[4]
  • 1587 – last record of the general sense, a living creature.[4]
  • 1795 – a local Scottish name for the shrew-mouse.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (archaic) A human being or person, often with a note of pity or contempt: a poor wight caught out in the storm.[11][2][4]
  2. (archaic) A living creature; a supernatural being.[2][4][9]

Word family

  • barrow-wight

wight2 valiant, strong, nimble

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1275 Laȝamon's Brut (Caligula manuscript)
Borrowed from
Old Norse vígt via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Old Norse vígr

Etymology

The adjective is inherited from Middle English wight, also wiht,[2] borrowed from Old Norse vígt,[4][8][11][9] the neuter of vígr (“of fighting age, skilled in arms”),[4][9][2] from Proto-Germanic *wīgaz.[1] The Old Norse adjective is related to víg (“fight, battle”)[2][7] and to Old English wīġ (“battle, conflict”),[9][11] and is cognate with Latin vincō (“to conquer”);[9][11][7][13] the American Heritage Dictionary refers it to the root Proto-Indo-European *weik-.[8] The OED compares other English adjectives taken from the Old Norse neuter form: quert, scant, thwart and want.[4][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Strong and courageous, especially of a warrior: about 1275, in Laȝamon's Brut.[4] Merriam-Webster dates the adjective to the 13th century,[2] and Dictionary.com to 1175–1225.[14]

Semantic evolution

From bravery in war the adjective widened about 1300 to strength and vigour in general,[4] and by 1390, in Gower, to speed and agility.[4] The Promptorium Parvulorum glosses wyht as "delyver, or swyfte".[13] It also had an adverb, "nimbly, quickly", from before 1400.[4] Johnson (1755) gave only "swift; nimble" and marked it out of use,[15] but Scott revived it in Marmion with "Wallace wight".[13] In Scotland and the north of England it survived in dialect for "strong, mighty, active".[12][2]

Timeline

  • c. 1275 – strong and courageous, of a warrior.[4]
  • c. 1300 – strong, vigorous, stalwart.[4]
  • 1390 – nimble, quick, swift.[4]
  • before 1400 – adverb, nimbly, swiftly.[4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. (archaic) Valiant and strong; stalwart.[2][11][4]
  2. (dialect) Strong; also swift or nimble.[2][12][4]

Word family

  • wightly

Usage notes

The name of the Isle of Wight is unrelated: it comes from Latin Vectis, originally a Celtic name.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
  11. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  12. ^ a b c Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  13. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.

Related etymologies

  • thrive · also from Old Norse
  • hank · also from Old Norse
  • rug · also from Old Norse
  • slack · also from Old Norse
  • blaze · also from Old Norse
  • gaze · also from Old Norse
  • beck · also from Old Norse
  • calf · also from Old Norse
Cite this entry

“Wight.” Etymologically, 1 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/wight. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·