Wight vs Waif - What's the difference?
wight | waif |
(archaic) A living creature, especially a human being.
* circa 1602 , , act 1, scene 3:
* 1626 , , verse vi
(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
(fantasy) A wraith-like creature.
(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.
(obsolete) Goods found of which the owner is not known; originally, such goods as a pursued thief threw away to prevent being apprehended, which belonged to the king unless the owner made pursuit of the felon, took him, and brought him to justice.
(obsolete) Hence, anything found, or without an owner; that which comes along, as it were, by chance.
A wanderer; a castaway; a stray; a homeless child.
* 1912 : (Edgar Rice Burroughs), (Tarzan of the Apes), Chapter 5
A plant that has been introduced but is not persistently naturalized.
As nouns the difference between wight and waif
is that wight is (archaic) a living creature, especially a human being while waif is (obsolete) goods found of which the owner is not known; originally, such goods as a pursued thief threw away to prevent being apprehended, which belonged to the king unless the owner made pursuit of the felon, took him, and brought him to justice.As an adjective wight
is (archaic except in dialects ) brave, valorous, strong.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)- O base Hungarian wight ! wilt thou the spigot wield?
- Oh say me true if thou wert mortal wight
And why from us so quickly thou didst take thy flight.
- But I saw a glow-worm near,
Who replied: ‘What wailing wight
Calls the watchman of the night?
Etymology 2
From (etyl), from (etyl) Merriam-Webster, 1974..Adjective
(head)See also
* Isle of Wightwaif
English
(Webster 1913)Noun
(en noun)- Tenderly Kala nursed her little waif , wondering silently why it did not gain strength and agility as did the little apes of other mothers. It was nearly a year from the time the little fellow came into her possession before he would walk alone, and as for climbing--my, but how stupid he was!