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Bight vs Wight - What's the difference?

bight | wight |

As nouns the difference between bight and wight

is that bight is a corner, bend, or angle; a hollow; as, the bight of a horse's knee; the bight of an elbow while wight is (archaic) a living creature, especially a human being.

As an adjective wight is

(archaic except in dialects ) brave, valorous, strong.

bight

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A corner, bend, or angle; a hollow; as, the bight of a horse's knee; the bight of an elbow.
  • *1905 ,
  • I spied a bight of meadow some way below the roadway in an angle of the river.
  • An area of sea lying between two promontories; larger than a bay, wider than a gulf
  • A curve in a rope
  • *1899 ,
  • I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron collar on his neck, and all were connected together with a chain whose bights swung between them, rhythmically clinking.

    See also

    *

    wight

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl), from (etyl) . See also (l). The meaning of the wraith-like creature is from barrow-wights in world.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (archaic) A living creature, especially a human being.
  • * circa 1602 , , act 1, scene 3:
  • O base Hungarian wight ! wilt thou the spigot wield?
  • * 1626 , , verse vi
  • Oh say me true if thou wert mortal wight
    And why from us so quickly thou didst take thy flight.
  • (paganism) A being of one of the Nine Worlds of heathen belief, especially a nature spirit, elf or ancestor.
  • (poetic) A ghost or other supernatural entity.
  • * 1789 , , lines 14-15-16
  • But I saw a glow-worm near,
    Who replied: ‘What wailing wight
    Calls the watchman of the night?
  • (fantasy) A wraith-like creature.
  • Etymology 2

    From (etyl), from (etyl) Merriam-Webster, 1974..

    Adjective

    (head)
  • (archaic except in dialects ) Brave, valorous, strong.
  • *:
  • *:I haue two sones that were but late made knyghtes / and the eldest hyghte sir Tirre // and my yongest sone hyght Lauayne / and yf hit please yow / he shalle ryde with yow vnto that Iustes / and he is of his age x stronge and wyght
  • Strong; stout; active.
  • See also

    * Isle of Wight