will-o'-the-wisp, n.
(ˈwɪləðəˈwɪsp)
Forms: see below. Pl. will-o'-the-wisps, also wills-o'-the-wisp.
[orig. Will with the wisp: see Will n.3 and wisp n. Cf. Jack-o'-lantern, and, for the second element, G. irrwisch.]
1. = ignis fatuus; fig. a thing (rarely a person) that deludes or misleads by means of fugitive appearances.
(α) 7–9 Will with the or a wisp (whisp); 7 -with-wispe, with th' wisp, 9 wit or wi' t' wisp; also 7 Will the Wispe.
| 1608 Day Law Trickes v. H 2 b, I haue playd Will with the wispe with my brother, and haue led him vp and downe the maze of good fellowship. 1623 ‘Jack Dawe’ Vox Graculi 45 When you are mis-led with lust (that Will-with-wispe). 16.. in Mad Pranks Robin Goodfellow (Percy Soc.) p. xviii, Some call him Robin Goodfellow,..some againe doe tearme him oft by name of Will the Wispe. 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 159 Ignes fatui, Fooles fires, wills with a wisp. 1729 Phil. Trans. XXXVI. 211 Thus far, what I could learn concerning the Will with a Whisp, as it hath been observed in the Plains. 1832 J. Hodgson in Raine Mem. (1858) II. 291 Ignis Fatuus or Will-with-the-wisp. 1839 Longfellow Hyperion iv. ii, His imagination is continually lantern-led by some will-with-a-whisp in the shape of a lady's stomacher. |
(
β) 7–9
will of the wisp,
o' the wisp (8
o' th', 9
o-the-); also with hyphens and one or two capital initials.
| 1661 Blount Glossogr. (ed. 2), Ignis Fatuus, foolish fire, or (as the Country people call it) Will of the Wisp. 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1768) V. 115 Knowledge by theory only is a vague uncertain light: a Will o' the Wisp. 1760 Sterne Tr. Shandy III. xxxi, All the polemical writings in divinity are not as clear and demonstrative as those upon a Will o' the Wisp, or any other sound part of philosophy. 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) xvii. i, Those Wills-o-the-wisp, the Reviewers. 1831 Scott Cast. Dang. xi, Through what extraordinary labyrinths this Love, this Will-of-the-Wisp, guides his votaries. 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop l, I'll be a Will o' the Wisp, now here, now there. 1840 Thackeray Paris Sk.-bk. (1869) 190 No light except that of..the wicked..wills-o'-the'wisp, as they gambol among the marshes. 1858 Greener Gunnery 208 Proof positive, that we have been on the wrong scent, and running after a ‘Will o' the Wisp.’ 1879 Huxley Sensation Sci. & Cult. (1881) 247 The metaphysical Will-o'-the-wisps generated in the marshes of literature and theology. 1918 W. R. Inge Philos. Plotinus I. 188 The utterly unscientific notion of an automatic ‘law of progress’, that strange Will-o'-the-wisp of nineteenth-century thought. |
(
γ) 7
will-a-wisp, 8
will o' whisp, 9
will-o-wisp (or
o'); also with one or two capital initials.
| 1679 Oldham Sat. Jesuits iii. 331 White Sheets for Ghosts, and Will-a-wisps have past For Souls in Purgatory unreleast. 1738 E. Montagu Corr. (1906) I. 29 Will o' Whisp never led the bewildered traveller over hedge and ditch as a moon does us country folk. 1829 A. Cunningham Magic Bridle 363 in Anniversary 149 Dank will-o'-wisp sank midst the mire. 1863 Meredith Lett. (1912) I. 114 Young Cupid was he called of old: That Will o' Wisp incorporate. |
(
δ) 7–8
Will in the Wisp (8
i'the whisp).
| 1689 Irish Hudibras To Rdr. 1 b, [They] made him skip the Bogs like a Will in the Wisp. 1706 Vanbrugh Mistake i. (1734) 16 What a Shame they should be allow'd to play Will in the Wisp with Men of Honour. 1762 Foote Orator i. i, A Will in the Wisp, to confound, perplex, and bewilder you. 1768 Tucker Lt. Nat. II. i. 132 We should see them dance about like so many Will i'the whisps. |
(
ε) 7–9
Willy-wisp (7
Wispe), 8
Willy wi' (
Willie with) or
and the wisp,
Willy's wisp.
| 1628 Mad Pranks Robin Goodfellow (Percy Soc.) 21 Wenches, that doe smile and lispe Use to call me Willy Wispe. 1679 Jas. Gordon Reformed Bp. 250, I do firmly believe, That..He would have chosen rather to have sent down some English Doctors to have govern'd us..than have permitted any of those Willy-wisps to jump into these empty Chairs. 1727 Willies with the Wisps [see spunkie 1]. 1756 Collect. Sc. Poems by Pennecuik etc. 23 Travelling of late in fogs and thro' thick mist, Without a guide, save Willy wi' the wisp. a 1761 [S. Haliburton & Hepburn] Mem. Magopico xiii. (ed. 2) 39 Plumbino is Willie-with-the-wisp; Magopico a flash of wild-fire. 1790 Morison Poems 38 Willy's wisp wi' whirlin' cant Their blazes ca', That's nought but vapours frae a stank. 1828 Craven Gloss., Willy-wit-wisp, called also a Willy-wisp; an ignis fatuus, or Jack with a lantern. |
b. attrib.| 1860 W. W. Reade Liberty Hall II. 44 A fluttering, shadowy, will-o-the-wisp style. 1873 All Year Round 5 July 226/1 Strange will-o'-the-wisp lights begin to flutter about the cordage. 1883 Black Shandon Bells xxi, Kitty's will-o'-the-wisp flashes of petulance. |
2. An alga,
Nostoc commune, so called from the inexplicable suddenness of its appearance.
Hence
will-o'-the-wisp v. trans., to lead astray like a will-o'-the-wisp;
will-o'-the-wispish,
-wispy adjs., of the nature of a will-o'-the-wisp.
| 1660 R. Wild Iter Boreale ix, Dark-Lanthorn Language, and his peep-boe play, Will-E-Wispt Lambert's New-Lights out o' th' way. 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 375 But to return to our Men of Learning, from whence we have been Will-ith-whisped. |
| 1866 Carlyle Remin. (1881) II. 177 His Mrs. Taylor too, a very will-o'-wispish ‘iridescence’ of a creature. a 1873 Lytton Ken. Chillingley ii. ii, The boy..became impish and Will-of-the-Wisp-ish. |
| 1886 R. Broughton Dr. Cupid xxxi, The Will-of-the-wispy laughter of his eyes. |
| 1926 J. B. Priestley G. Meredith v. 129 Woman..is far less likely than man to be Will-o'-the-Wisped away by sheer unreason masquerading as reason. 1954 L. MacNeice Autumn Sequel xxvi. 159 Words may will-o'-the-wisp him. |