adj.
Gaw superl. wyʒtest; Pe wyʒte; WA wiʒt, wight
‘lively, loud, valiant, strong, fierce; quick’ (Modern English wight)
PGmc Ancestor
*wīga-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
vígr ‘in fighting state, serviceable’
(ONP vígr (adj.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Icel vígur, Norw andvig, runic Sw wīgaʀ, Sw vig
OE Cognate
orwīge ‘defenceless’
Phonological and morphological markers
<p>ON adjectival (adverbial) <em>-t</em></p>
Summary category
A2*c
Predominantly N and E and alliterative in ME and a northern word in CT.Rv., but there are also a number of SWM occurrences, and some in later SE writers inc. Gower and Hoccleve; in various MnE dial, especially N.
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
Gaw 119, 261, 1591; Pe 694; Erk 69; WA 765*, 1014, 1798 etc.
On the legibility of Gaw 1591 wyʒtest (Madden <wyʒcrest>) in the MS, see Knott 1915: 108. There may be a further instance at Gaw 1762, depending on how the form is parsed; see wiʒt (adv.).