will o' the wisp
Pluralwill o' the wisps
- 1Any of various pale, flickering lights seen above marshy ground around the world, variously explained in folklore and attributed by science to several possible causes, including bioluminescence and chemiluminescence.
From the farmhouse window they watched a will o' the wisp flicker over the marshland and then vanish.
No single theory accounts for every will o' the wisp, since the lights seen over different marshes may have different causes.
Note
Behind the scientific puzzle sits a homely picture: a man called Will out on the marsh with a makeshift flame. Will is the given name, o' is a clipped of, and a wisp is a bundle of straw or hay used as a torch. The phrase works as a single noun, so the plural is will o' the wisps, with the -s on the last word.
- 2A goal based on delusion, or otherwise impossible to achieve, that someone feels compelled to pursue.
Investors began to suspect that the promised high-speed rail line was a will o' the wisp, always ten years from being finished.
She spent her twenties chasing the will o' the wisp of a flawless first novel, rewriting the opening chapter again and again.
Similarchimera, mirage, illusion, fantasy
Note
In this figurative use the phrase often passes judgment on a plan, and it sits after is or was. R. K. Kirkland's "The Cavan & Leitrim Railway" (Railway Magazine, 1951) dismisses a scheme the local authorities would not fund as "even at that date, a will o' the wisp"; Richard Preston, in The New Yorker in 1992, writes it hyphenated, will-o'-the-wisp. The image behind it is the luring folklore light, always out of reach.
Less common meaning
- 3In British folklore, a flickering light or lantern, especially over bogs, swamps or marshes, held by a supernatural creature that uses it to lure travelers to their deaths at night.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from Will (a male given name) + of + the + wisp, in the sense of a bundle of straw or hay used as a torch.