Etymology Dictionary

ALIGHT,  (1) to descend from; (2) to light upon.  (E.)   1. M.E. alighten, alihten, particularly used of getting off a horse.   'Heo letten alle tha horsmen i than wude alihten' = they caused all the horsemen to alight in the wood; Layamon, iii. 59.   2. Also M.E. alighten, alihten; as in 'ur louerd an erthe alighte her' = our Lord alighted here upon earth; Rob. of Glouc., p. 468.   β. The two senses of the word shew that the prefix a- has not the same force in both cases.   It stands (1) for of-, i.e. oflihten, to alight from; and (2) for on-, i.e. onlihten, to light upon; but, unfortunately, clear instances of these are wanting.   γ. The A.S. only has the simple form líhtan or gelíhtan, and the ambiguous álíhtan (apparently of-líhtan), to get down, in Ælfric's Grammar, De Quarta Conj. § iii.   The simple form lihtan, to alight (from horseback), occurs in the Death of Byrhtnoth, ed. Grein, l. 23.   [The radical sense of líhtan is to render light, to remove a burden from.]—Northumbrian liht, leht, West-Saxon leoht, light (i.e. unheavy); see A.S. Gospels, St. Matt. xi. 30.   See Light, in the sense of un-heavy.