Old English wiht: a being, a person, a thing; and in "aught" and "naught" (Old English to Middle English)
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upLens: our readingOpen: not yet proven
Year: 2026
SUMMARYOld English wiht: a being, a person, a thing; and in "aught" and "naught" (Old English to Middle English) [Connections: Masonic color line, asylums, castles, wight, Nov 5, 2026]
RECORDEtymonline: wight is from Old English wiht, Proto-Germanic *\wihti-. Its senses include "living being male or female, person" and "unnatural or uncanny creature." Cognates: Old Saxon wiht ("thing, demon"), Old Norse vettr, German Wicht, Dutch wicht and Gothic waihts. Aught is from Old English awiht, "literally 'e'er a whit'," and naught from nawiht, "literally 'no whit'." Separate origin: the Isle of Wight is "Unrelated." Its name comes "from Latin Vectis (c. 150), originally Celtic."
PATTERN"Wight" meant a living being, either a person or a spirit, and survives inside "naught."
LENS (WW9)Under the old word, a "wight" was simply a living being
OPENRead the Oxford English Dictionary and Bosworth-Toller entries in full for the Old English attestations