Wayte

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. To keep close watch or lie concealed in ambush, as an archaic form of waiting ; a guard or lookout who keeps watch over a place
2. An old form of wait meaning to observe closely or lie hidden for a purpose ; a sentry or watchman posted to guard an area
3. Archaically, to stand watch or lurk in hiding for someone or something ; an archaic term for a sentinel who keeps guard

Etymology: The spelling "wayte" is simply an older way of writing "wait," and the word it names has an unexpectedly tangled ancestry. Its nearest relatives are the German "wachten" and Dutch "wachten," both meaning to wait, and the root sense is closer to keeping watch: the Frankish ancestor meant "to watch, guard," and it is the same idea that gives French "guetter," meaning to watch out for. English had its own native word for waiting, "biden," which survives today as "bide." The modern verb largely displaced it in Middle English, but the picture is murkier than a simple replacement. In some senses, "waiten" merged with or was influenced by a separate Middle English word, "weiten," which meant to lie in wait for someone, to set a trap, or to snare. That second word came from Old Norse "veita," meaning to assist or grant, so the sense of lying in wait has a different thread running through it. The result is a verb in which keeping watch and setting an ambush became intertwined.