Talk:Wicht

German cite

As for the cite

• Wilhelm Hey, Fischlein

  Fischlein! Fischlein! du armer Wicht, / schnappe nur ja nach der Angel nicht;

given for the neuter meaning child or girl:
"armer Wicht" is masculine not neuter and the sense child or girl doesn't them to make sense in the context of Fischlein (diminituve of Fisch). The sense mean person doesn't seem to fit either, and goblin, sprite, kobold wouldn't too. A more general sense "creature" or merged "creature, sprite, kobold, goblin" would fit. Adelung has this as "Ein Geschöpf, eine Creatur". -84.161.37.160 03:21, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

German sense child

As for word meaning child:

• Is it really neuter or solely neuter? Adelung, Duden and DWDS have it as masculine only. Adelung's note "noch häufig im Niederdeutschen" could explain the difference, as in Low German and in Northern High German it could be neuter.
• Wiktionary has "most often: girl" - but Duden has "besonders kleiner Junge". That's contradicting. Maybe it's because of the gender: In case of the neuter it could be "most often: girl" - while as a masculine it could be "especially a little boy".

-84.161.37.160 03:21, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

In standard German it's masculine and this masculine is often used of cheeky children. I've added that sense, and I think it's what "especially a little boy" refers to. The dialectal word is neuter and refers chiefly to girls. In some regions it is/was even the normal everyday word for "girl", "young female person".