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Witch (word)
The English word witch, from the Old English wiċċe, is a term rooted in European folklore and superstition for a practitioner of witchcraft, magic or sorcery. Traditionally associated with malevolent magic, with those accused of witchcraft being the target of witch-hunts, in the modern era the term has taken on different meanings. In literature, a 'witch' can now simply refer to an alluring woman capable of 'bewitching' others. In neopagan religions such as Wicca the term has meanwhile been adopted as a label for adherents of all genders.
The modern spelling witch with the medial 't' first appears in the 16th century. Old English had both masculine (wicca) and feminine (wicce) forms of the word, but the masculine meaning became less common in Standard English, being replaced by words like "warlock" and "wizard".
The origins of the word are Germanic, rooted in the Old English verb wiccian, which has a cognate in Middle Low German wicken (attested from the 13th century, besides wichelen 'to bewitch').
The Brothers Grimm's Deutsches Wörterbuch connects the "Ingvaeonic word" *wikkōn with Gothic weihs 'sacred' (Proto-Indo European (PIE) *weik- 'to separate, to divide', probably via early Germanic practices of cleromancy such as those reported by Tacitus).
R. Lühr connects wigol 'prophetic, mantic', wīglian 'to practice divination' (Middle Low German wichelen 'bewitch', wicker 'soothsayer') and suggests Proto-Germanic *wigōn, geminated (cf. Kluge's law) to *wikkōn. The basic form would then be the feminine, wicce < *wikkæ < *wikkōn with palatalization due to the preceding i and the following *æ < *ōn in early Ingvaeonic. The palatal -cc- /t͡ʃ/ in wicca would then be analogous to the feminine.
Another Old English word for 'witch' was hægtes or hægtesse, which became the modern English word "hag" and is linked to the word "hex". In most other Germanic languages, their word for 'witch' comes from the same root as these; for example German Hexe and Dutch heks. Its proto-Germanic form is reconstructed as *hagatusjon, whose origin is unclear.
The adjective 'wicked' and noun 'wickedness' apparently derive from the Old English wiċċa ('male witch').
The earliest recorded use of the word "witch" is in the Laws of Ælfred, which date to about 890:
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Witch (word)
The English word witch, from the Old English wiċċe, is a term rooted in European folklore and superstition for a practitioner of witchcraft, magic or sorcery. Traditionally associated with malevolent magic, with those accused of witchcraft being the target of witch-hunts, in the modern era the term has taken on different meanings. In literature, a 'witch' can now simply refer to an alluring woman capable of 'bewitching' others. In neopagan religions such as Wicca the term has meanwhile been adopted as a label for adherents of all genders.
The modern spelling witch with the medial 't' first appears in the 16th century. Old English had both masculine (wicca) and feminine (wicce) forms of the word, but the masculine meaning became less common in Standard English, being replaced by words like "warlock" and "wizard".
The origins of the word are Germanic, rooted in the Old English verb wiccian, which has a cognate in Middle Low German wicken (attested from the 13th century, besides wichelen 'to bewitch').
The Brothers Grimm's Deutsches Wörterbuch connects the "Ingvaeonic word" *wikkōn with Gothic weihs 'sacred' (Proto-Indo European (PIE) *weik- 'to separate, to divide', probably via early Germanic practices of cleromancy such as those reported by Tacitus).
R. Lühr connects wigol 'prophetic, mantic', wīglian 'to practice divination' (Middle Low German wichelen 'bewitch', wicker 'soothsayer') and suggests Proto-Germanic *wigōn, geminated (cf. Kluge's law) to *wikkōn. The basic form would then be the feminine, wicce < *wikkæ < *wikkōn with palatalization due to the preceding i and the following *æ < *ōn in early Ingvaeonic. The palatal -cc- /t͡ʃ/ in wicca would then be analogous to the feminine.
Another Old English word for 'witch' was hægtes or hægtesse, which became the modern English word "hag" and is linked to the word "hex". In most other Germanic languages, their word for 'witch' comes from the same root as these; for example German Hexe and Dutch heks. Its proto-Germanic form is reconstructed as *hagatusjon, whose origin is unclear.
The adjective 'wicked' and noun 'wickedness' apparently derive from the Old English wiċċa ('male witch').
The earliest recorded use of the word "witch" is in the Laws of Ælfred, which date to about 890: