FromMiddle Englishwrit, fromOld Englishwrit andġewrit(“writing”), fromProto-Germanic*writą(“fissure, writing”), fromProto-Indo-European*wrey-,*wrī-(“to scratch, carve, ingrave”). Cognate withScotswrit(“writ, writing, handwriting”),Icelandicrit(“writing, writ, literary work, publication”).
writ (countable anduncountable,pluralwrits)
- (countable, law) Awrittenorder, issued by acourt,ordering someone to do (or stop doing) something.
- (countable, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK) Adocument ordering that anelection be conducted.
- (countable, UK) Anorder issued by theHouse of Lords summoningpeers to the Chamber.
- (uncountable)Authority, power to enforce compliance.
2009, Stephen Galeet al.,The War on Terrorism: 21st-Century Perspectives[1], Transaction Publishers,→ISBN, page30:We can't let them take advantage of the fact that there are so many areas of the world where no one'swrit runs.
1913, Elizabeth Kimball Kendall,A Wayfarer in China:Within Lololand, of course, no Chinesewrit runs, no Chinese magistrate holds sway, and the people, more or less divided among themselves, are under the government of their tribal chiefs.
- (archaic) That which is written;writing.
1590,Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XII”, inThe Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] forWilliam Ponsonbie,→OCLC, stanza 25:Then to his hands thatwrit 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 HolyWrit
a written order
- Bulgarian:нареждане (bg) n(nareždane),предписание (bg) n(predpisanie)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin:令狀 /令状 (zh)(lìngzhuàng)
- Czech:písemný příkaz m
- Dutch:bevelschrift (nl),gerechterlijke opdracht,dwangbevel (nl)
- Finnish:oikeudenmääräys
- French:ordonnance (fr) f
- German:Erlaß (de) m,Gerichtsurkunde f,Verfügung (de) f,Zwangsbefehl m
- Hindi:विधि (hi)(vidhi)
- Hungarian:végzés (hu),bírósági végzés,bírói végzés,hivatalos okirat
- Italian:ordinanza (it) f,intimazione (it) f,mandato (it) m,ingiunzione (it) f
- Japanese:令状 (ja)(れいじょう, reijō)
- Korean:영장 (ko)(yeongjang)
- Maori:tāmana,whakahau-ā-pukapuka
- Polish:nakaz sądowy m
- Portuguese:mandado (pt) m
- Russian:прика́з (ru) m(prikáz),распоряже́ниесуда́ n(rasporjažénije sudá)
- Spanish:decreto judicial m,recurso (es) m,auto (es) m,requerimientojudicial m
- Swedish:skrivelse (sv) c
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authority, power to enforce compliance
FromMiddle Englishwrit,write, fromOld Englishwrite.
writ
- (dated, dialectal)past ofwrite
c.1596–1598 (date written),W[illiam] Shakespeare,The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto),[London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [forThomas Heyes], published1600,→OCLC,[Act II, scene iv]:I know the hand, in faith tis a faire hand,
And whiter then the paper itwrit on,
Is the faire hand thatwrit.
1609,William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 116”, inShake-speares Sonnets. […], London: ByG[eorge] Eld forT[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold byWilliam Aspley,→OCLC,signature H, recto:Lou's not Times foole, though roſie lips and cheeks
VVithin his bending ſickles compaſſe come,
Loue alters not with his breefe houres and vveekes,
But beares it out euen to the edge of doome:
If this be error and vpon me proued,
I neuervvrit, nor no man euer loued.
- (dated, dialectal)pastparticiple ofwrite
c.1596–1598 (date written),W[illiam] Shakespeare,The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto),[London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [forThomas Heyes], published1600,→OCLC,[Act II, scene iv]:I know the hand, in faith tis a faire hand,
And whiter then the paper it writ on,
Is the faire hand thatwrit.
c.1678 (date written; published1682),J[ohn] Dryden, “Mac Flecknoe”, inMac Flecknoe: A Poem. […] With Spencer’s Ghost: Being a Satyr Concerning Poetry. […], London: […] H[enry] Hills, […], published1709,→OCLC,page 7:LetVirtuoſo’s in five years beWrit; / Yet not one Thought accuſe thy toil of Wit.
1749,Henry Fielding, “Containing five Pages of Paper”, inThe History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume II, London:A[ndrew] Millar, […],→OCLC, book IV,page 2:For as this is the Liquor of modern Hiſtorians, nay, perhaps their Muſe, if we may believe the Opinion ofButler, who attributes Inſpiration to Ale, it ought likewiſe to be the Potation of their Readers; ſince every Book ought to be read with the ſame Spirit, and in the ſame Manner, as it iswrit.
1859,Omar Khayyam, “Quatrain LI”, in [Edward FitzGerald], transl.,Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, the Astronomer-Poet of Persia. […], facsimile edition, London:Bernard Quaritch, […],→OCLC,page11:The Moving Finger writes; and, havingwrit, / Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit / Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,[…]
1971, “Life on Mars?”, performed byDavid Bowie:But the film is a saddening bore
'Cause I wrote it ten times or more
It's about to bewrit again
- The formwrit survives in standard dialects in the phrasewrit large as well as in works aiming for an intentionally poetic or archaic style. It remains common in some dialects (e.g. Scouse).
writ
- romanization of𐍅𐍂𐌹𐍄
FromProto-Germanic*writą, whence alsoOld High Germanriz,Old Norserit.
writ n (nominative pluralwritu)
- writ
Stronga-stem:
