writ

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”).

• IPA^(key): /ɹɪt/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɪt

writ (countable and uncountable, plural writs)

1. (law) A written order, issued by a court, ordering someone to do (or stop doing) something.
2. Authority, power to enforce compliance.
   • 2009, Stephen Gale et al., The War on Terrorism: 21st-Century Perspectives‎, 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.

3. (archaic) That which is written; writing.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, 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 837543169:

     Babylon, so much spoken of in Holy Writ

• claim form (English law)

• drop the writ
• handwrit
• Holy Writ
• writ of habeas corpus

• Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

writ

1. (archaic) past tense of write
   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene iv]:

     I know the hand: in faith, 'tis a fair hand;
     And whiter than the paper it writ on
     Is the fair hand that writ.

2. (archaic) past participle of write
   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene iv]:

     I know the hand: in faith, 'tis a fair hand;
     And whiter than the paper it writ on
     Is the fair hand that writ.

   • 1709, J[ohn] Dryden; J[ohn] Oldham, “(please specify the page)”, in Mac Flecknoe: A Poem. […] With Spencer’s Ghost: Being a Satyr Concerning Poetry. […], London: […] H[enry] Hills, […], OCLC 5001242:

     Let Virtuosos in five years be writ; / Yet not one thought accuse thy toil of wit.

   • 1859, Omar Khayyam, Edward Fitzgerlad (translattor), Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

     The moving finger writes, and having writ, not all your piety or wit can lure it back to cancel half a line […]

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter I, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292, book IV:

     For as this is the liquor of modern historians, nay, perhaps their muse, if we may believe the opinion of Butler, 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 is writ.

   • 1971, “Life on Mars?”, performed by David Bowie:

     But the film is a saddening bore
     'Cause I wrote it ten times or more
     It's about to be writ again

• 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).

• writ large
• writ small

• ITRW, Wirt

writ

1. Romanization of 𐍅𐍂𐌹𐍄

• ġewrit

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

• IPA^(key): /writ/

writ n (nominative plural writu)

1. writ

• ġewrit