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Webster 1913 Edition

Wraith

Wraith

,
Noun.
[Scot.
wraith
,
warth
; probably originally, a guardian angel, from Icel.
vörðr
a warden, guardian, akin to E.
ward
. See
Ward
a guard.]
1.
An apparition of a person in his exact likeness, seen before death, or a little after; hence, an apparition; a specter; a vision; an unreal image.
[Scot.]
She was uncertain if it were the gypsy or her
wraith
.
Sir W. Scott.
O, hollow
wraith
of dying fame.
Tennyson.
2.
Sometimes, improperly, a spirit thought to preside over the waters; – called also
water wraith
.
M. G. Lewis.

Definition 2024

wraith

wraith

English

Noun

wraith ‎(plural wraiths)

  1. A ghost or specter, especially seen just after a person's death.
    • 1513, Gawin Douglas, “XI”, in The Æneid of Virgil: Translated into Scottish Verse, volume II, The Bannatyne Club edition, Edinburgh: T Constable, translation of Virgilii Eneados by Publi Vergili Maronis, published 1839, line 95, page 646:
      The wraithis walkis of goistis that ar ded,
    • 1917, Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2008:
      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.

Synonyms

  • See also Wikisaurus:ghost

Derived terms

Translations

See also

Etymology

First attested 1513, in the Middle Scots translation of the Aeneid: "Nor ᵹit na vayn wrathys nor gaiſtis quent Thi char conſtrenyt bakwart forto went," "Syklyke as that, thai ſay, in diuers placis The wraithis walkis of goiſtis that ar ded," "Thydder went this wrath or ſchaddo of Ene, That ſemyt, all abaſyt, faſt to fle,".

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.

Pronunciation

  • enPR: rāth, IPA(key): /ɹeɪθ/
  • Rhymes: -eɪθ

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