Wraith

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Dr. Goodword
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Wraith

Postby Dr. Goodword » Mon Oct 18, 2021 7:32 pm

• wraith •


Pronunciation: rayth • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. A phantom, ghost, specter, evil spirit, a fetch. 2. Something faint, pale, thin or unsubstantial, a wisp, as 'a wraith of smoke'.

Notes: This word was originally and now chiefly Scottish. Do not confuse it with wrath, which means "fury, extreme anger". It comes with a rarely used adjective, wraithly, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, though no other dictionary lists it. We are more likely to meet wraithlike in normal conversation.

In Play: The literal sense of the word may be used like this: "After promising to fix Thelma's Porsche, Miss Anna Liza Carr disappeared like a wraith into the dark night." The figurative usage turns up in expressions like this: "Her constant illness had reduced his mother to a wraith of her old self."

Word History: Today's Good Word was first attested in 1513, in a Middle Scots translation of the Aeneid. It has no certain etymology. J. R. R. Tolkien thought it akin to writhe. It has also been compared to Scots English warth "omen, foreboding" and Old Norse vorðr "watcher, guardian", whence Icelandic vörður "guard". Some have suggested a relation to wray "to accuse, denounce", with the same suffix we find on width and breadth. It might even be related to wrath via the assumption that a wraith is a wrathful spirit. These are all simply educated guesses, though, without any evidence at all to substantiate any of them. (Now for a round of e-applause for Susan Maynard, who suggested we examine this gift from Scotland for today's Good Word.)
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Slava
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Re: Wraith

Postby Slava » Tue Oct 19, 2021 7:30 am

So, did fetch throw anyone else for a loop?
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

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Re: Wraith

Postby Dr. Goodword » Tue Oct 19, 2021 5:21 pm

It did me. According to the OED, a fetch is "[t]he apparition, double, or wraith of a living person."
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Re: Wraith

Postby Slava » Tue Oct 19, 2021 5:53 pm

Living, for now. A fetch is also a sign of impending doom for those who see themselves. Or so it is said.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

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Re: Wraith

Postby Philip Hudson » Wed Oct 20, 2021 3:36 am

Pogo, Walt Kelley's cartoon creation remarked that "We have met the enemy and he is us." This is a fetch that is surely a sign of impending doom for all the world. We, the people of the world, have defiled our nest almost to the point of no return. God made us to be stewards of the earth. not polluters.
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.


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