writ

English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɹɪt/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪt

Etymology 1

From Middle English writ, from Old English writ and ġewrit (“writing”), from Proto-Germanic *writą (“fissure, writing”), from Proto-Indo-European *wrey-, *wrī- (“to scratch, carve, ingrave”). Cognate with Scots writ (“writ, writing, handwriting”), Icelandic rit (“writing, writ, literary work, publication”).

Noun

writ (countable and uncountable, plural writs)

  1. (countable, law) A written order, issued by a court, ordering someone to do (or stop doing) something.
  2. (countable, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK) A document ordering that an election be conducted.
  3. (countable, UK) An order issued by the House of Lords summoning peers to the Chamber.
  4. (uncountable) Authority, power to enforce compliance.
    • 2009, Stephen Gale et al., The War on Terrorism: 21st-Century Perspectives‎[1], Transaction Publishers, →ISBN, page 30:
      We can't let them take advantage of the fact that there are so many areas of the world where no one's writ runs.
    • 1913, Elizabeth Kimball Kendall, A Wayfarer in China:
      Within Lololand, of course, no Chinese writ runs, no Chinese magistrate holds sway, and the people, more or less divided among themselves, are under the government of their tribal chiefs.
  5. (archaic) That which is written; writing.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 25:
      Then to his hands that writ he did betake, / Which he disclosing, red thus, as the paper spake.
    • 1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC:
      Babylon, so much spoken of in Holy Writ
    • Part 1 published in 1605, Part 2 in 1615, translated in 2003, Miguel de Cervantes and translated by Edith Grossman, Don Quixote, pages 201-202:
      These aforementioned three donkeys I hereby order immediately transferred as payment for others herewith received, which shall comprise, by this compensatory writ, full and complete payment thereof.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations

References

Etymology 2

From Middle English writ, write, from Old English write.

Verb

writ(dated or dialectal)

  1. simple past of write
  2. past participle of write up
Usage notes
  • The form writ survives in standard dialects in the phrase writ large as well as in works aiming for an intentionally poetic or archaic style. It remains common in some dialects (e.g. Scouse).
Derived terms

Anagrams

Gothic

Romanization

writ

  1. romanization of 𐍅𐍂𐌹𐍄

Old English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *writą, whence also Old High German riz, Old Norse rit.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /writ/
  • Rhymes: -it

Noun

writ n (nominative plural writu)

  1. writ

Declension

Strong a-stem:

singular plural
nominative writ writu
accusative writ writu
genitive writes writa
dative write writum

Derived terms

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