The word 'Wait," anciently spelled Wayghte or Wayte, is derived from the old high German wahten (to keep watch); it is common in the sense of guard or watchman to all the Teutonic languages,[1] the German wacht, Dutch vaght, Swedish vakt and English watch. When used as a verb, its meaning is "to stay in expectation of"; as a noun, it denotes a minstrel watchmen.[2]
A Band of Modern Waits
When surnames were generally introduced into England in the eleventh century, those who held an office in most cases added its designation to their Christian names, thus: Richard, the minstral-watchman, who was known as Richard le (the) Wayte, afterward contracted to Richard Wayte. The name has since been spelled Wayte, Wavt, Wayght, Waight, Wait, Waitt, Wate, Weight, Waiet, etc.[2]
Notable people include
Wait
Benjamin Wait (1813–1895), Canadian businessman and author
Daniel Guilford Wait (1789–1850), English clergyman, Hebrew scholar and religious writer
James R. Wait, electrical engineer and engineering physicist
John T. Wait (1811–1899), U.S. Representative from Connecticut
William Bell Wait (1839–1916), teacher in the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind
This page lists people with the surnameWait. If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.
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