Etymologically
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wraith

Etymology and origin of the English word wraith

History

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ɹeɪθ/[1]

Etymology

Originally Scots,[2][3][4] first recorded in 1513 in a translation of Virgil's Aeneid.[1][5][6] Its origin is unknown.[7][6][3][2] Several guesses have been made: Old Norse vǫrðr “guardian”, in the sense of a guardian angel, suggested by Weekley and the Century Dictionary;[4][1] Irish and Gaelic arrach “spectre, apparition”, pointed to by Klein;[4] or a transferred use of Scots wraith “wrath, angry”, which would connect it with writhe.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

From its first appearance in 1513 the word had two senses: the ghost of a dead person, and the exact likeness of a living person, seen as an apparition and usually taken as a sign that the person was about to die.[5][6][4]

Semantic evolution

The death-omen sense is the one dictionaries give first,[7][6][2] but in general use a wraith is any ghost or spectre.[7][6][1] From the 19th century the word also describes things that merely look ghostly: a pale, insubstantial shape, or a thin column of smoke or mist.[5][7][6] In the 18th century it could also mean a water spirit.[5]

Timeline

  • 1513 – “ghost” and “apparition of a living person”.[5][6][3]
  • 1742 – “water spirit”.[5]
  • 1882 – “a shape that suggests a ghost”.[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. An apparition of a living person, believed to appear just before that person's death.
  2. A ghost.
  3. Something pale, faint or insubstantial.
  4. A thin, barely visible column of smoke or vapour.

Word family

  • wraithlike

Related words

  • ghost
  • fetch
  • phantom
  • specter
  • wrath
  • writhe

References

  1. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. [1] [2] [3] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  3. [1] [2] [3] Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  4. [1] [2] [3] [4] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. [1] [2] [3] [4] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Cite this entry

“Wraith.” Etymologically, 7 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/wraith. Accessed 7 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on .