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Wite vs Wile - What's the difference?

wite | wile |

As nouns the difference between wite and wile

is that wite is blame, responsibility, guilt while wile is wila, black tree lichen (edible lichen).

As a verb wite

is (chiefly|scotland) to blame; regard as guilty, fault, accuse or wite can be (obsolete|or|poetic) to go, go away, depart, perish, vanish.

wite

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) , see below.

Alternative forms

* wyte

Verb

(wit)
  • (chiefly, Scotland) To blame; regard as guilty, fault, accuse
  • * Late 14th century , Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘The Wife of Bath's Tale’, Canterbury Tales :
    • As help me God, I shal þee nevere smyte! / Þat I have doon, it is þyself to wyte .
  • To reproach, censure, mulct
  • To observe, keep, guard, preserve, protect

    • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) , see below.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Blame, responsibility, guilt.
  • *:
  • *:And so by fortune the ship drave unto a castle, and was all to-riven, and destroyed the most part. So many lords and barons of this realm were displeased, for their children were so lost, and many put the wite on Merlin more than on Arthur; so what for dread and for love, they held their peace.
  • *:• :
  • *::And so by fortune the shyp drofe vnto a castel and was al to ryuen and destroyed the most part/ So many lordes and barons of this reame were displeasyd / for her children were so lost / and many put the wyte on Merlyn more than on Arthur / so what for drede and for loue they helde their pees
  • *, title= The Worm Ouroboros
    • , publisher= , passage=Nor I will not suffer mine indignation so to witwanton with fair justice as persuade me to put the wite on Witchland.}}
  • Punishment, penalty, fine, bote, mulct.

    • Etymology 3

    From (etyl) (m)

    Verb

    (wit)
  • (obsolete, or, poetic) To go, go away, depart, perish, vanish

    • References

    * Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia English terms with homophones ----

    wile

    English

    (Webster 1913)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (usually, in the plural) A trick or stratagem practiced for ensnaring or deception; a sly, insidious artifice
    • He was seduced by her wiles .
  • * Milton
    • to frustrate all our plots and wiles

    Synonyms

    * beguilement * allurement

    Related terms

    * guile * wily

    Verb

    (wil)
  • To entice or lure
  • , "to pass the time".
    • Here's a pleasant way to wile away the hours.

    Usage notes

    The phrase meaning to pass time idly is while away''. We can trace the meaning in an adjectival sense for while back to Old English, hw?len — ''passing, transitory''. We also see it in the whilend — ''temporary, transitory''. But since ''wile away occurs so often, it is now included in many dictionaries.

    References

    * Grammarist.com While away or wile away? * Common Errors in the English Language Wile Away, While Away ----