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Origin and history of wright

wright(n.)

"an artificer;" Middle English, "a carpenter," also "a builder, architect;" from Old English wryhta, wrihta (Northumbrian wyrchta, Kentish werhta) "worker," a variant of earlier wyhrta "maker," from wyrcan "to work" (see work (v.)).

A common West Germanic word (Old Saxon wurhito, Old Frisian wrichta, Old High German wurhto), in Modern English preserved mostly in combinations (wheelwright, playwright, etc.) or surnames (Wright, Wainwright, Cartwright, all 13c.).

The metathesis of an -r- and a vowel in words from Old English also can be seen in thrash, thresh, third, thirty, bird, wrought, and nostril.

Smith was the general term for a worker in metals, and wright for one who worked in wood, and other materials. Hence, in the later English period, smith (which, in Anglo-Saxon, when used without any characteristic addition, was understood as applying more particularly to the worker in iron,) became the particular name of a blacksmith, and wright of a carpenter, as it is still in Scotland. [Thomas Wright, "Anglo-Saxon and Old English Vocabularies," 1884]

Related: Wrightry "carpentry; business of a carpenter" (mid-15c.). Middle English combinations also included battle-wright "warrior," bread-wright "baker," leth-wright "professional poet" (Old English leoþ-wyrhta).

Entries linking to wright

bird(n.1)

"feathered, warm-blooded vertebrate animal of the class Aves," Old English bird, a rare collateral form of bridd, originally meaning "young bird, nestling" (the usual Old English for "bird" being fugol, for which see fowl (n.)), which is of uncertain origin with no cognates in any other Germanic language. The suggestion that it is related by umlaut to brood and breed is rejected by OED as "quite inadmissible." The metathesis of -r- and -i- was complete 15c. (compare wright).

Despite its early attestation, bridd is not necessarily the oldest form of bird. It is usually assumed that -ir- from -ri- arose by metathesis, but here, too, the Middle English form may go back to an ancient period. [Liberman]

Up to c. 1400 it still often was used in the specific sense "the young of a bird, fledgling, nestling, chick," and of the young of other animals (bees, fish, snakes) and human children. Compare the usual Balto-Slavic words for "bird" (Lithuanian paukštis, Old Church Slavonic pŭtica, Polish ptak, Russian ptica, etc.), said to be ultimately from the same root as Latin pullus "young of an animal."

The proper designation of the feathered creation is in E. fowl, which in course of time was specially applied to the gallinaceous tribe as the most important kind of bird for domestic use, and it was perhaps this appropriation of the word which led to the adoption of the name of the young animal as the general designation of the race. [Hensleigh Wedgwood, "A Dictionary of English Etymology," 1859]

The figurative sense of "secret source of information" is from 1540s. The colloquial meaning "man, fellow, person" is from 1799.

Bird-watching is attested by 1884. Bird's-eye view "the view as seen from above, as if by a bird in flight," is from 1762. Phrase for the birds in reference to anything undesirable is recorded from 1944, supposedly in allusion to birds eating from droppings of horses and cattle. The bird-spider (1800) of the American tropics is a large sort of tarantula that can capture and kill small birds.

A byrde yn honde ys better than three yn the wode. [c. 1530]

The form with bush is attested by 1630s.

nostril(n.)

"one of the external openings of the nose, a nasal orifice," late 14c., nostrille, from Old English nosþyrl, nosðirl, literally "the hole of the nose," from nosu "nose" (from PIE root *nas- "nose") + þyrel "hole" (from PIE root *tere- (2) "cross over, pass through, overcome"). For metathesis of -r- and vowel, see wright. After the second element became obsolete as an independent, its form was corrupted in the compound.