witch (word)

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The English word witch, from the Old English {{wikt-lang|ang|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.{{cite book |last1=Cusack |first1=Carole M. |editor1-last=Pizza |editor1-first=Murphy |editor2-last=Lewis |editor2-first=James |title=Handbook of Contemporary Paganism |date=2009 |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004163737 |page=345 |chapter=The Return of the Goddess: Mythology, Witchcraft and Feminist Spirituality}}

Etymology

The modern spelling witch with the medial 't' first appears in the 16th century. Old English had both masculine ({{lang|ang|wicca}}) and feminine ({{lang|ang|wicce}}) forms of the word,{{Cite journal|last=Dashu|first=Max|date=2016-01-01|title=Names of the Witch|url=https://www.academia.edu/44479773|journal=Witches and Pagans: Women in European Folk Religion, 700-1100}} but the masculine meaning became less common in Standard English, being replaced by words like "warlock" and "wizard".{{Cite web |title=Which Witch is Which?: Traditional Witchcraft Expounded |url=https://hedgewytchery.com/witchcraft/traditional/ |access-date=2025-02-19 |website=hedgewytchery.com |language=en}}

The origins of the word are Germanic, rooted in the Old English verb {{wikt-lang|ang|wiccian|wiccian}}, which has a cognate in Middle Low German {{wikt-lang|gml|wicken|wicken}} (attested from the 13th century, besides {{wikt-lang|gml|wichelen|wichelen}} 'to bewitch').

The Brothers Grimm's {{lang|de|Deutsches Wörterbuch}} connects the "Ingvaeonic word" {{lang|mis|*wikkōn}} with Gothic {{wikt-lang|got|weihs|weihs}} 'sacred' (Proto-Indo European (PIE) {{lang|ine-x-proto|*weik-}} 'to separate, to divide', probably via early Germanic practices of cleromancy such as those reported by Tacitus).Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde IV, p. 506.Grimm's view is repeated by the Online Etymology Dictionary: "possible connection to Gothic {{lang|got|weihs}} 'holy' and Germanic {{wikt-lang|gem-x-proto|weihan|weihan}} 'consecrate,' s, 'the priests of a suppressed religion naturally become magicians to its successors or opponents.{{' "}}{{OEtymD|witch}}

R. Lühr connects {{lang|ang|wigol}} 'prophetic, mantic', {{lang|ang|wīglian}} 'to practice divination' (Middle Low German {{lang|gml|wichelen}} 'bewitch', {{lang|gml|wicker}} 'soothsayer') and suggests Proto-Germanic {{lang|gem-x-proto|*wigōn}}, geminated (c.f. Kluge's law) to {{lang|gem-x-proto|*wikkōn}}. The basic form would then be the feminine, {{lang|ang|wicce}} < {{lang|gem-x-proto|*wikkæ}} < {{lang|ine-x-proto|*wikkōn}} with palatalization due to the preceding i and the following *æ < *ōn in early Ingvaeonic. The palatal -cc- {{IPA|/t͡ʃ/}} in {{lang|ang|wicca}} would then be analogous to the feminine.R. Lühr, Expressivität und Lautgesetz im Germanischen, Heidelberg (1988), p. 354

=Related terms=

Another Old English word for 'witch' was {{Lang|ang|hægtes}} or {{Lang|ang|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.{{cite web |title=hag (n.) |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/hag |website=Online Etymology Dictionary}}

The adjective 'wicked' and noun 'wickedness' apparently derive from the Old English {{lang|ang|wiċċa}} ('male witch').{{cite web |title=wicked (adj.) |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/wicked |website=Online Etymology Dictionary}}

History

File:Otto Goetze - Riding Witches.jpg

=Middle Ages=

The earliest recorded use of the word "witch" is in the Laws of Ælfred, which date to about 890:Oxford English Dictionary Online, 2nd Edition (1989).Bosworth, Joseph & T. Northcote Toller. (1998) An Anglo-Saxon dictionary, based on the manuscript collections of the late Joseph Bosworth; edited and enlarged by T. Northcote Toller. Oxford: Oxford University Press (reprint of 1898 edition). {{ISBN|0-19-863101-4}}

{{Verse translation|lang=ang

|Tha faemnan, the gewuniath onfon gealdorcraeftigan and scinlaecan and wiccan, ne laet thu tha libban.

|Women who are accustomed to receiving enchanters and sorceresses and witches, do not let them live!

}}

In the homilies of the Old English grammarian Ælfric, dating to the late 10th century we find:

{{Verse translation|lang=ang

|Ne sceal se cristena befrinan tha fulan wiccan be his gesundfulnysse.

|A Christian should not consult foul witches concerning his prosperity.

}}

The word {{lang|ang|wicca}} also appears in Halitgar's earlier Latin Penitential, but only once in the phrase {{lang|ang|swa wiccan tæcaþ}} ('as the witches teach'), which seems to be an addition to Halitgar's original, added by an 11th-century Old English translator.{{cite book |last=North |first=Richard |title=Heathen Gods in Old English Literature |publisher=Cambridge University Press |place=Cambridge, UK |year=1997 |page=276}} North quotes Penitential, II.22, as in {{cite book |title=Die Altenglische Version des Halitgar'schen Bussbuches |editor-last=Raith |page=29}}{{incomplete citation|date=March 2025}}

In Old English glossaries the words {{lang|ang|wicce}} and {{lang|ang|wicca}} are used to gloss such Latin terms as {{wikt-lang|la|augur|augur}},{{cite book|last=Chardonnens|first=László Sándor|title=Anglo-Saxon Prognostics, 900–1100: Study and Texts|year=2007|publisher=Brill|location=Leiden|isbn=9789004158290|page=109|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CZS6CsIkCRoC|quote=In another of the Plantin-Moretus glossaries, 'ariolus' is a secondary gloss to 'augur', which is glossed in Old English by 'wicca'.}} {{wikt-lang|la|hariolus|hariolus}}, {{wikt-lang|la|conjector|conjector}}, and {{wikt-lang|la|pythonissa|pythonyssa}}, all of which mean 'diviner, soothsayer'.

=Early modern period=

Johannes Nider and other 15th century writers used the Latin term {{lang|la|maleficus}} to mean witch—a person who performed {{lang|la|maleficium}}, harmful acts of sorcery, against others. The introduction of the idea of demonic forces empowering the acts of {{lang|la|maleficium}} gave the term witch new connotations of idolatry and apostasy that were adopted by {{lang|la|Malleus Maleficarum}} (1486), but these remained disputed despite papal injunctions to take action against witches.Bailey, M. D. (2010). Battling Demons: Witchcraft, Heresy, and Reform in the Late Middle Ages. (n.p.): Pennsylvania State University Press. {{page needed|date=August 2023}}

In the Friuli region of Italy, there was agrarian visionary tradition known as the benandanti (literally 'well-farers'), who said that they battled witches, but who inquisitors nevertheless determined were witches themselves.{{cite book |last=Ginzburg |first=Carlo |title=The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries |author-link=Carlo Ginzburg |translator1-first=John |translator1-last=Tedeschi |translator2-first=Anne |translator2-last=Tedeschi |year=1983 |orig-year=1966 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |location=Baltimore |isbn=978-0801843860 |page=4}}

=Modern=

In current colloquial English witch is typically applied to women, with the male equivalent being warlock or wizard.{{cn|date=March 2025}} Contemporary dictionaries currently distinguish four meanings of the noun witch, including: a person (especially a woman) credited with malignant supernatural powers; a practitioner of neo-pagan tradition or religion (such as Wicca); a mean or ugly old woman: hag crone; or, a charming or alluring girl or woman.{{Cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/witch|title=Definition of WITCH|website=www.merriam-webster.com|access-date=5 June 2021}} Figurative use to refer to a bewitching young girl begins in the 18th century.Samuel Richardson, Pamela; or virtue rewarded (1739–40) has: "Mrs. Jervis, said he, take the little witch from me"