wraith
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English
Etymology
First attested 1513, in a Middle Scots translation of the Aeneid.
The word has no certain etymology. J. R. R. Tolkien favored a link with writhe. Also compared are Scots warth and Old Norse vǫrðr (“watcher, guardian”), whence Icelandic vörður (“guard”). See also wray/bewray, from Middle English wreien. Perhaps from wrath as a wraith is a vengeful spirit.
Pronunciation
Noun
wraith (plural wraiths)
- A ghost or specter, especially a person's likeness seen just after their death.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:ghost
- 1912 February–July, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Under the Moons of Mars”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as “Sola Tells Me Her Story”, in A Princess of Mars, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., 1917 October, →OCLC, pages 159–160:
- We might indeed have been the wraiths of the departed dead upon the dead sea of that dying planet for all the sound or sign we made in passing.
- 2001, Joyce Carol Oates, Middle Age: A Romance, paperback edition, Fourth Estate, page 80:
- Like wraiths with the impediments of bodies they stumbled in the direction of Salthill faces.
Derived terms
Translations
A ghost or specter, especially seen just after a person's death
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References
- ^ Gawin Douglas, transl. (1513), chapter X, in Eneados, volume 10, lines 81–82: “Nor ȝit na vayn wrathys nor gaiſtis quent / Thi char conſtrenyt bakwart forto went ― Nor yet no vain wraiths nor quaint ghosts / constrained Thy chariot to go backward”
- ^ Gawin Douglas, transl. (1513), chapter XI, in Eneados, volume 10, lines 95–96: “Syklyke as that, thai ſay, in diuers placis / The wraithis walkis of goiſtis that ar ded ― Such as that, they say, in diverse places / The wraiths walk of ghosts that are dead”
- ^ Gawin Douglas, transl. (1513), chapter XI, in Eneados, volume 10, lines 129–130: “Thydder went this wrath or ſchaddo of Ene, / That ſemyt, all abaſyt, faſt to fle ― Thither went this wraith or shade of Ene, / That seemed, all abased, fast to flee”
Further reading
wraith on Wikipedia.Wikipedia 
Wraith in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
