wight

Wight, from Old English word wiht, is a Middle English word used to describe a creature or a living being. It is akin to Old High German wiht, meaning a creature or thing.^[1]

In its original usage the word wight described a living human being.^[2] More recently, the word has been used within the fantasy genre to describe undead or wraith-like creatures: corpses with a part of their decayed soul still in residence, often draining life from their victims. Notable examples of this include the undead Barrow-Wights from the works of J. R. R. Tolkien and the wights of Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

Modern German "Wicht" is a cognate, meaning "small person, dwarf", and also "unpleasant person"; in Low German it means "girl". The word is a cognate with Dutch wicht, German Wicht, Old Norse vættir and Swedish vätte. It is not related to the English word "witch". The Wicht, Wichtel or Wichtelchen of Germanic folklore is most commonly translated into English as an imp, a small, shy character who often does helpful domestic chores when nobody is looking (as in the Tale of the Cobbler's Shoes).

In literature and culture

Examples of the word used in classic English literature and poetry:

• Geoffrey Chaucer (1368-1372), The Book of the Duchess, line 579:

  "Worste of alle wightes."

• Geoffrey Chaucer (1368-1372), Prologue of The Knight, line 72-73:

  "In all his life, to whatsoever wight.

  He was a truly perfect, gentle knight."

• Geoffrey Chaucer (circa 1379-1380), The House of Fame, line 1830-1831:

  "We ben shrewes, every wight,

  And han delyt in wikkednes."

• Edmund Spenser (1590-1596), The Faerie Queene, I.i.6.8-9:

  "That every wight to shrowd it did constrain,

  And this fair couple eke to shroud themselues were fain."

• William Shakespeare (circa 1602), The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act I, Sc. III:

  "O base Hungarian wight! wilt thou the spigot wield?

• William Shakespeare (circa 1603), Othello, Act II, Sc. I:

  "She was a wight, if ever such wight were"

• John Milton (1626), On the Death of a Fair Infant Dying of a Cough, verse vi:

  "Oh say me true if thou wert mortal wight..."

• George R. R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire series, Book IV A Feast for Crows (2005):

  "Who has been beyond the wall of death to see? Only the wights, and we know what they are like. We know."

See also

• Wraith
• Isle of Wight

References

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