Etymology

wheft

W4H4E1F4T1

Today it means: A waft (flag used to indicate wind direction or, with a knot tied in the center, as a signal) Full definition →

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The story

Possibly a blend of waft (“breeze, indicative flag”) + Middle English wef (“odour, stench”), itself likely derived from weven (“to move about”) or a variant of wayf; compare wek, variant of weyk (“weak”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.