whisht
English
Etymology
From Middle English qwyst, whisht, whist, imitative, though perhaps influenced by other verbs in wh- used in the imperative or by hust (adjective).[1]
Interjection
whisht
- (Ireland; British, especially Scotland, Northumbria) Shush, silence, be quiet!
- 1952, Neville Shute, chapter 9, in The Far Country, London: Heinemann:
- “You must have loved him very much,” she said.
“Whisht,” said the old woman, “there’s a word that you must never use until there's marrying between you […] ”
- A sound often used to calm livestock, cattle, sheep etc.
Translations
a sound often used to calm livestock, cattle, sheep etc.
See also
References
- Frank Graham (1987) The New Geordie Dictionary, →ISBN
- “whist, interj. or or v. imperative”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Scots
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Scottish Gaelic èist (“listen, harken”).
Verb
whisht (third-person singular simple present whishts, present participle whishtin, simple past whishtit, past participle whishtit)
- to call for silence, to say whisht
- (transitive) to silence (someone)
- (intransitive) to be silent
- 1819, Walter Scott, The Bride of Lammermoor:
- Whisht, sir!—whisht, and let me speak just ae word that I couldna say afore folk
- Hush, sir! Be silent and let me say just one thing that I could not say in front of other people
Noun
whisht (plural whishts)
Derived terms
- keep one's whisht (“to hold one's tongue”)
References
- “Whisht, interj., v., n., adj.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.
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