Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An apparition of a living person that appears as a portent just before that person's death.
- n. The ghost of a dead person.
- n. Something shadowy and insubstantial.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An apparition in the exact likeness of a person, supposed to be seen before or soon after the person's death; in general, a visible spirit; a specter; a ghost.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Scot. 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.
- n. Sometimes, improperly, a spirit thought to preside over the waters; -- called also
water wraith .
WordNet 3.0
- n. a mental representation of some haunting experience
Etymologies
- The first attestation dates to 1513, in the Mid. Scottish translation alone of Aeneid: "Nor ᵹit na vayn wrathys nor gaiftis quent Thi char conftrenyt bakwart forto went," "Syklyke as that, thai fay, in diuers placis The wraithis walkis of goiftis that ar ded," "Thydder went this wrath or fchaddo of Ene, That femyt, all abafyt, faft to fle,". (Wiktionary)
- Origin unknown. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Banquo's wraith, which is invisible to all but Macbeth, is the haunting of an evil conscience.”
“It is not her own betrothal, but mine with Winnie's wraith, that is deluding her crazy brain.”
“* This in the North of Ireland is called wraith, as in”
“When next we see Dean, he is standing in the hallway, monitoring the mirror where he expects to see the true reflection of the wraith, which is the monster that’s been killing people.”
“The 'wraith' of a small box whose image was out at the right, appeared above the other image off at the left and it was turned with a corner to the front.”
“[1] The word "wraith" is here used in an obviously inexact sense; but the wraith seemed to be the nearest equivalent in English mythology to the Scandinavian "fylgie," an attendant spirit, often regarded as a sort of emanation from the person it accompanied, and sometimes (as in this case) typifying that person's moral attributes.”
The Vikings of Helgeland The Prose Dramas Of Henrik Ibsen, Vol. III.
“Those writers probably mean "wraith," a ghost or spectral figure seen by a dying person, though there will be no convincing them of that.”
“There is nothing on the stage that doesn't look elegant, and there are moments a flimsy dress hovers in the air like a wraith that shimmer into beauty.”
“Dreamily smiling old people shuffled past with their walkers, one of them a twisted wraith, half-carried by a female nurse who had biceps the size of Allen's thigh.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘wraith’.
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Iaan
dirigisme, dystopia, cacotopia, ex ante, veritable, indefatigable, curmudgeon, desultory, antediluvian, transmogrify, pendent, elongate and 269 more...
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EN - archaic words
abide, abjure, abroad, adamant, afield, aforetime, aghast, anon, apace, argent, assuage, aught and 328 more...
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Russian Doll Words
A Russian Doll word is a word that, when you remove the first and last letters, is either the empty string, or a Russian Doll word. These are all of the 6 or more letter Russian Doll words found in...
waspiness, upraisers, strainers, sporangia, raspiness, prelatess, methanals, gaspiness, washings, uprisers, upraises, upraiser and 2373 more...
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supernatural creatures according to M...
Turned this up on etymonline.com (link). It's amazing.
Hobbit (n.)
1937, coined in the fantasy tales of J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973).
On a blank leaf I scrawled: 'In a hole...ghost, boggle, bloody-bones, spirit, demon, ignis fatuus, brownie, bugbear, black dog, specter, shellycoat, scarecrow and 186 more...
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ghost
This is Ghost List 2 ( the kind that go 'boo!' ) :P
( open list )
more:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/macabrephantom, spectral, specter, spectre, spooky, poltergeist, haunt, spirit, banshee, cryptic, shadow, phantasm and 311 more...
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of Montreal
Every time I finally decipher Kevin Barnes's song lyrics, I feel somewhat smarter.
These are strange/big/obscure words and phrases from the lyrics of the band 'of Montreal' (intentiona...southern hemisphe..., paradigm, Phaidon Press, permutation, List Christie, Gemini Tactics, eluardian, persecution complex, Himmlers, parabola, Mono Club, subconscious mass... and 132 more...
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English words of Scots origin
If it's not ...
blackmail, blatant, caddie, caddy, clan, convene, cosy, firth, glamour, gloaming, golf, glengarry and 15 more...
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Origin unknown
bamboozle, ballyhoo, banter, bludgeon, chad, cocktail, culvert, curmugeon, dildo, dude, dweeb, dyke and 51 more...
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Starts with a silent letter
...with grateful thanks to telofy (for "cnidarian"), and to the song "Crazy ABC's" by Barenaked Ladies.
cnidarian, mnemonic, chthonic, ptarmigan, psoriasis, psittacine, bdellium, aisle, czar, gnarly, gnat, gnaw and 82 more...
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beyond pale
Words meaning or invoking the different aspects of pale.
Not just colour, but also the ideas of impermanence, illness, weakness. (Just not the two noun forms – a thin strip of metal or woo...pale, pallid, wan, light, misty, ethereal, cream, dim, white, thin, waning, colourless and 62 more...
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Old words
recalcitrant, grok, Hiatus, shanghai, pervade, diffuse, tempestuous, incorrigible, daunt, cull, Erudite, Assuage and 35 more...
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GRE
pejorative, austere, unconscionable, lissome, edify, winsome, axiom, malinger, abjure, deleterious, contumacious, peregrinate and 152 more...
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The Devil and His Imps
Names of 'the Devil himself, the devils his "flaming ministers", household goblins, rural demons, bogles, sprites, and fairies of all kinds' mentioned in Charles P.G. Scott's 'The Devil and His Imp...
devil, devilet, deviling, dablet, black angel, black man, black bear, black bull, black dog, bogle, bogie, boggard and 128 more...
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Wordplay
reticent, slammerkin, moonstruck, zephyr, gallivant, hullabaloo, pandemonium, equestrian, wallflower, martyr, threadbare, treacherous and 180 more...
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word list!!!!
lagniappe
syzygy, bloviate, lagniappe, laconic, condign, umbrage, susurrus, thaumaturgy, capacious, capitulate, glower, repast and 179 more...
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je les adore!
fusillade, foal, celestial, abattoir, byzantium, berlin, casablanca, babylon, balkans, albion, avalon, between the devil... and 471 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for wraith.
vanishedone Vexamples has given up: She looked like a small white wraith--do you know what a wraith is?
It's interesting to see an etymology from the Century Dictionary; even the mighty O.E.D. just calls the word's origin 'obscure'. Dec 9, 2009
kewpid “Where the masculine ideal of as recently as 2000 was a buff 6-footer with six-pack abs, the man of the moment is an urchin, a wraith or an underfed runt.�? — Vanishing Point, NYT Feb 7, 2008