Weight

Weight
This interesting and unusual surname is English. It is an occupational name for a member of the town 'watch'. Introduced into England after the Norman Conquest of 1066, and derived from the Old Norman French word "guait", the name applied specifically to a gate watchman in a fortified town. The singers and musicians of the Christmas "Waits" today carry on the tradition of the Waits of medieval England who combined the duties of watchman and musicians. "At the last he came to a Castel and there he herd the waytes upon the wallys", in Malory's "Le morte d'Arthur", in 1485. In the modern idiom, there are more than fifteen possible spellings of the name ranging from Waith, Waite, Wayt, Weight, and Waight to Whate. Among the recordings in London is the christening of Francis, son of William and Alice Weight, on March 11th 1631 at St. Olave's, Silverstreet, and the marriage of Henry Weight and Elizabeth Jefferes on July 8th 1639 at Stepney. A Coat of Arms granted to the family consists of a silver shield, a black chevron between three bugle horns stringed black, garnished gold, the crest being a bugle horn and the motto: Pro aris et focis, translating as 'For our altars and our homes'. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Roger le Wayte, which was dated 1221, County Records of Suffolk (Ely), during the reign of King Henry 111, "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

Surnames reference. 2013.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?
Synonyms:

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Weight — Weight, n. [OE. weght, wight, AS. gewiht; akin to D. gewigt, G. gewicht, Icel. v[ae]tt, Sw. vigt, Dan. v[ae]gt. See {Weigh}, v. t.] [1913 Webster] 1. The quality of being heavy; that property of bodies by which they tend toward the center of the… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • weight — [wāt] n. [ME weiht, altered (infl. by weien, WEIGH1) < OE wiht < wegan: see WEIGH1] 1. a portion or quantity weighing a definite or specified amount [ten pounds weight of lead] 2. a) heaviness as a quality of things …   English World dictionary

  • Weight — Weight, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Weighted}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Weighting}.] [1913 Webster] 1. To load with a weight or weights; to load down; to make heavy; to attach weights to; as, to weight a horse or a jockey at a race; to weight a whip handle.… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • weight — ► NOUN 1) a body s relative mass or the quantity of matter contained by it, giving rise to a downward force; heaviness. 2) Physics the force exerted on the mass of a body by a gravitational field. 3) the quality of being heavy. 4) a unit or… …   English terms dictionary

  • weight — O.E. gewiht, from P.Gmc. * (ga)wekhtiz, * (ga)wekhtjan (Cf. O.N. vætt, O.Fris. wicht, M.Du. gewicht, Ger. Gewicht), from *weg (see WEIGH (Cf. weigh)). The verb meaning to load with weight is attested from 1747; sense in statistics is recorded… …   Etymology dictionary

  • weight — [n1] heaviness adiposity, avoirdupois, ballast, burden, density, G factor*, gravity, gross, heft, heftiness, load, mass, measurement, net, ponderosity, ponderousness, poundage, pressure, substance, tonnage; concept 795 weight [n2] something used… …   New thesaurus

  • weight|y — «WAY tee», adjective, weight|i|er, weight|i|est. 1. heavy; having much weight. SYNONYM(S): ponderous. See syn. under …   Useful english dictionary

  • Weight — ist der Familienname folgender Personen: Doug Weight (* 1971), US amerikanischer Eishockeyspieler Pamela Weight, britische Eiskunstläuferin Diese Seite ist eine Begriffsklärung zur Unterscheidung mehrerer mit demselben Wort …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • weight — I (burden) noun care, cumbrance, duty, encumbrance, incubus, liability, load, mass, obligation, onus, oppression, ponderousness, pressure, responsibility II (credibility) noun belief, certainty, confidence, credence, credibleness, credit, faith,… …   Law dictionary

  • weight — n 1 significance, *importance, moment, consequence, import Analogous words: *worth, value: magnitude, *size, extent: seriousness, gravity (see corresponding adjectives at SERIOUS) 2 *influence, authority, prestige, cr …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • weight|i|ly — «WAY tuh lee», adverb. in a weighty manner; heavily; ponderously; momentously; forcibly …   Useful english dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”