eldertongue

Old English · noun

wiht

Part of speech
noun, feminine / neuter
Declension
strong i-stem
IPA
/wixt/
[wiçt]
Syllables
wixt (1 syllable)
Modern English
weightwhitwightthingcreaturebeing

wiht1 · noun · feminine/neuter

Senses

  1. thing

    God ne ēht nānre wihte, for þȳ hine nān wiht ne mæġ flēon.

    God doesn't chase anything, because nothing can run from him.

    late 9th century, King Alfred's translation of Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy

  2. being, creature

    byþ ānmōd and oferhyrned, felafrēcne dēor, feohteþ mid hornum, mǣre mōrstapa; þæt is mōdiġ wuht.

    An aurochs is steadfast and over-horned, well-wrathful beast, fights with horns, the well-known moor-stepper. That’s a headstrong being.

    c. 1000, The Rune Poem:

Declension · strong i-stem

Declension of wiht
SingularPlural
Nominative wihtwihtewihtawihtu
Accusative wihtwihtewihtewihtawihtu
Genitive wihtewihteswihta
Dative wihtewihtum

wiht2 · noun · feminine

Senses

  1. weight

All forms (6)

Etymology

From a fusion of Proto-Germanic *wihtiz (feminine) and *wihtą (neuter), both meaning "thing". These words became *wihti and *wiht in West Germanic and then merged in ante-historic Old English by regular sound change. Cognate with Old Saxon wiht (Low German Wicht), Old Dutch wiht (Dutch wicht), Old High German wiht (German Wicht), Old Norse vætr (Swedish vätte), and Gothic (waihts) and (waiht).

From Proto-West Germanic *wihti. Cognate with Middle Low German wicht, Dutch wicht, gewicht, Old Norse vætt (compare also Danish vægt, Norwegian vekt); Old High German giwihti (German Gewicht).

Descendants

whit, wight, weight

Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wiht · CC BY-SA 4.0 licence · Attribution