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spright. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
spright, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
spright in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
spright you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
Unetymological spelling of sprite. Doublet of spirit, spiritus, spirytus, sprite, and esprit.
Pronunciation
Noun
spright (plural sprights)
- (obsolete) Spirit; mind; soul; state of mind; mood.
1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 40, page 100:Well may I ween, your grief is wondrous great; / For wondrous great griefe groneth in my ſpright, / Whiles thus I heare you of your ſorrowes treat.
1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 24, page 141:Who comming to that ſowle-diſeaſed knight, / Could hardly him intreat, to tell his grief: / Which knowne, and all that noyd his heauie ſpright, / Well ſearcht, eftſoones he gan apply relief.
- (obsolete) A supernatural being; a spirit; a shade; an apparition; a ghost.
1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 38, page 13:And forth he cald out of deepe darknes dredd / Legions of Sprights, the which like litle flyes / Fluttring about his euerdamned hedd, [...]
1600, [Torquato Tasso], “The Eleuenth Booke of Godfrey of Bulloigne”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. , London: Ar Hatfield, for I Iaggard and M Lownes, →OCLC, stanza 7, page 196:To thee, O Father, Sonne, and ſacred Spright. / One true, eternall, euerlaſting king, / To Chriſtes deere mother Marie virgin bright, / Pſalmes of thankeſgiuing and of praiſe they ſing, [...]
- (obsolete) A kind of short arrow.
Derived terms
Verb
spright (third-person singular simple present sprights, present participle sprighting, simple past and past participle sprighted)
- (obsolete) To haunt.
1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :I am sprighted with a fool ;
Frighted , and anger'd worse