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English
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle Scots wraith, first attested in 1513 as a translation of the Aeneid.[1][2][3]
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 C 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
- Bulgarian: привидение (bg) n (prividenie)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 鬼魂 (zh) (guǐhún), 幽靈 / 幽灵 (zh) (yōulíng), 幽魂 (zh) (yōuhún)
- Dutch: spook (nl) n, geestverschijning (nl) f
- Faroese: dreygur (fo) m, hamur (fo) m
- Finnish: henki (fi), haamu (fi)
- French: fantôme (fr) m, spectre (fr) m
- German: Gespenst (de)
- Hungarian: lidérc (hu)
- Irish: taibhse (ga)
- Japanese: 幽霊 (ja) (ゆうれい, yūrei)
- Kazakh: елес (eles)
- Korean: 유령(幽靈) (ko) (yuryeong)
- Macedonian: при́зрак m (prízrak)
- Mazanderani: ورول (vorul)
- Occitan: esglasi (oc) m, trèva (oc) f
- Polish: widmo (pl), zjawa (pl)
- Portuguese: espectro (pt) m, aparição (pt) f, fantasma (pt) m
- Russian: при́зрак (ru) m (prízrak)
- Scottish Gaelic: sgàile f, tannasg m, taibhse m or f
- Serbo-Croatian: утвара f, utvara (sh) f, приказа f, prikaza (sh) f, сабласт, sablast (sh)
- Spanish: fantasma (es) f, espectro (es) m
- Swedish: vålnad (sv) c
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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