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Old Aug 12 2005, 03:24 PM   #708
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Default Re: Wraith

Quote:
"Wraith" was in the supernatural lexicon before Stargate and even before Tolkien, I'll bet.
You'd be a winner.

Wraith [also, wrath, wrayth, wraithe, wreath], etym. chiefly Scottish, of obscure origin.

1. an apparition or spectre of a dead person; a phantom or ghost; attes. 1513, Douglas AEneid xi.93 - In diuers placis The wraithis walkis of goistis that are deyd; a 1585, Polwart Flyting w. Mongomerie 638 - Thy speach ... is espyed, That wrytes of witches, warlocks, wraiths, and wratches; b. an immaterial or spectral appearance of a living being, freq. regarded as portending that person's death; a fetch; attes: 1513, Douglas AEneid x.xi.127 - Thydder went this wraith or schaddo of Ene; 1597, Jas. VI, Demonol. These kindes of spirites, when they appeare in the shaddow of a person ... to die, to his friends ... are called Wraithes in our language.
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