Editing Will-o'-the-wisp (section)

==Nomenclature==
===Etymology===
The term ''will-o'-the-wisp'' comes from ''wisp'', a bundle of sticks or paper sometimes used as a torch and the name '[[Will (given name)|Will]]', thus meaning 'Will of the torch'. The term ''[[jack-o'-lantern]]'' ('Jack of the lantern') originally referred to a will-o'-the-wisp.<ref>{{cite web|last=Harper|first=Douglas|title=Jack-o'-lantern (n.)|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/Jack-o'-lantern|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019235119/https://www.etymonline.com/word/Jack-o'-lantern|archive-date=2017-10-19|work=Online Etymology Dictionary|access-date=9 May 2013}}</ref> In the United States, they are often called ''spook-lights'', ''ghost-lights'', or ''orbs'' by folklorists.<ref name="Wagner">{{cite web|title=Spooklights: Where to Find Them|first=Stephen|last=Wagner|url=http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa080601a.htm|work=About.com|access-date=2007-12-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071022153333/http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa080601a.htm|archive-date=2007-10-22}}</ref><ref name="Floyd">{{cite web|title=Historical Mysteries: Ghostly lights as common as dew in Dixie|first=Randall|last=Floyd|url=http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/060897/fea_floyd.html|work=[[The Augusta Chronicle]]|year=1997|access-date=December 8, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.moonslipper.com/ghostlightsandorbs.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311080723/http://www.moonslipper.com/ghostlightsandorbs.html|archive-date=March 11, 2007|title=Ghost Lights and Orbs|website=Moonslipper.com|access-date=November 18, 2011}}</ref>

The Latin name {{lang|la|ignis fatuus}} is composed of {{lang|la|[[wikt:ignis#Latin|ignis]]}}, meaning 'fire' and {{lang|la|[[wikt:fatuus|fatuus]]}}, an adjective meaning 'foolish', 'silly' or 'simple'; it can thus be literally translated into English as 'foolish fire' or more idiomatically as 'giddy flame'.<ref name="Bergovia" /> Despite its [[Latin]] origins, the term {{lang|la|ignis fatuus}} is not attested in antiquity, and the name for the will-o'-the-wisp used by the [[Ancient Rome|ancient Romans]] is uncertain.<ref name="Bergovia" /> The term is not attested in the Middle Ages either. Instead, the Latin {{lang|la|ignis fatuus}} is documented no earlier than the 16th century in Germany, where it was coined by a German [[humanist]], and appears to be a free translation of the long-existing German name {{lang|de|[[wikt:Irrlicht|Irrlicht]]}} ('wandering light' or 'deceiving light') conceived of in [[German folklore]] as a mischievous spirit of nature; the Latin translation was made to lend the German name intellectual credibility.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Brown |first=Jane K. |title=Irrlichtelieren |journal=Goethe Yearbook |volume=27 |year=2020 |pages=337–344 |doi=10.1353/gyr.2020.0017 |s2cid=240765012 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/762257/summary|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="HdA-Olbrich-irrlicht"/>

Beside {{lang|de|Irrlicht}}, the will-o'-the-wisp has also been called in German {{lang|de|Irrwisch}} (where {{lang|de|[[wikt:Wisch|Wisch]]}} translates to 'wisp'), as found in e.g. [[Martin Luther]]'s writings of the same 16th century.<ref name="HdA-Olbrich-irrlicht"/>

===Synonyms===
The names ''will-o'-the-wisp'' and ''jack-o'-lantern'' are used in [[origin myth|etiological folk-tales]], recorded in many variant forms in [[Ireland]], [[Scotland]], [[England]], [[Wales]], [[Appalachia]], and [[Newfoundland and Labrador|Newfoundland]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pitt.edu/~dash/willowisp.html|title=Will-o'-the-Wisp, Jack-o'-Lantern|last=Ashliman|first=D.|date=January 19, 2019|website=University of Pittsburgh|access-date=October 23, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Mystical Mountains|last=Jackson|first=Darla|date=September 3, 2015|pages=109–110}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nlunexplained.ca/2016/09/jack-lantern-in-shoe-cove-bight-will-o.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170103161228/http://www.nlunexplained.ca/2016/09/jack-lantern-in-shoe-cove-bight-will-o.html|archive-date=2017-01-03|title=Jack the Lantern in Shoe Cove Bight|last=Jarvis|first=Dale|website=www.nlunexplained.ca|access-date=October 23, 2019}}</ref>

Folk belief attributes the phenomenon explicitly in the term ''[[Hob (folklore)|hob]] lantern'' or ''hobby lantern''<ref name="wright1914"/> (var. 'Hob and his Lantern',<ref name="allies1846"/> 'hob-and-lanthorns").{{sfnp|Denham|1895|loc='''2''': 78}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|And "Hoberdy's Lantern", "Hobany's Lantern" "Hob and his Lantern"<ref name="allies1846"/> probably corrupted from "Hob and his Lantern" accord. Kittredge, 440, n3.}} In her book ''A Dictionary of Fairies,'' [[Katharine Mary Briggs|K. M. Briggs]] provides an extensive list of other names for the same phenomenon, though the place where they are observed (graveyard, bogs, etc.) influences the naming considerably. When observed in graveyards, it is known as a ''ghost candle'' or ''corpse candle''.<ref name="odonnell1955"/><ref>{{harvp|Denham|1895|loc='''2''': 79}}: "corpse lights or candles"</ref>