Today's word comes from page 18 of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. It is one of the oldest words I have come across lately and is in fact obsolete (meaning no longer in general use) and archaic (meaning very old.)
wight, a noun
1. [Obsolete] a living being; creature.
Sentence: That wight doth seem to haunt my garden.
2. [Archaic] a human being; person: now sometimes used in a patronizing or commiserating sense.
Sentence: As I strolled the halls of the nursing home, a wight called out to me for a glass of water.
(The origin of this word traces back through Middle English, wiht; to Old English; is related to German wicht when it meant creature and the Gothic word waihts which meant thing.)
From Webster's New World Dictionary, Third College Edition.
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