Etymology: < dight v.

Etymology: Old English dihtan , < Latin dictāre to dictate, compose in language, appoint, prescribe, order, in medieval Latin to write, compose a speech, letter, etc.: see dictate v. Parallel forms are Old High German dihtôn, tihtôn, tictôn, thictôn to write, compose, Middle High German tihten, dichten, to write, compose, invent, contrive, modern German dichten to compose verses or poetry, Middle Low German dichten to compose, institute, contrive, set (oneself), Low German dichten, digten to versify, invent, contrive, think out, Middle Dutch dichten to compose (in writing), contrive, institute, prepare, modern Dutch dichten to invent, compose, versify; also Icelandic dikta to compose or write in Latin, to write a romance, to romance, lie, Swedish dikta to feign, fable, Danish digte to make poems (from German). The mutual relations of the Old English, Old High German, and Norse words are not quite clear; but the difference of formation between Old English dihtan < *dihtjan, and Old High German tihtôn v. < *dihtôjan, indicates that they are independent adoptions of the Latin, although the change of d to t shows that the word is old in German. The Norse word must be of later adoption: if it were old, the expected form would be *détta. From the senses of literary dictation and composition in which it was originally used, this verb received in Middle English an extraordinary sense-development, so as to be one of the most widely used words in the language. Special representatives of these Middle English senses, survive dialectally, especially in the north; the modern literary language knows the past participle dight, which after being nearly obsolete in the 18th cent., has been largely taken up again by poets and romantic writers of the 19th cent. in senses 10, 14 (In Middle High German dichten had also a much greater development of meaning than in modern German.)In Old English the prefixed form gedihtan (compare y- prefix) is also attested, and survives into Middle English as idight.

Etymology: < dight, past participle of dight v.