Wight

This article is about the term in Germanic languages. For the island in England, see Isle of Wight. For other uses, see Wight (disambiguation).
Page recording a charm against a dwarf, from the Lacnunga collection, in which the dwarf is referred to as a wiht.[1]

A wight is a being or thing. This general meaning is shared by cognate terms in Germanic languages, however the usage of the term varies greatly over time and between regions. In Old English, it could refer to anything in existence, with more specific usages arising in Middle English, perhaps due to the term of similar meaning in Anglo-Norman, creature. The term is widely used in modern fantasy, often to mean specifically a being which is undead.

  1. ^ Hines 2019, pp. 38–39.