Witch (word)

Witch (word)
Witch, from the Old English (masculine warlock, from ), 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 women capable of 'bewitching' others. In neopagan religions such as Wicca the term has meanwhile been adopted as the female term for an adherent.
Etymology
The modern spelling witch with the medial 't' first appears in the 16th century. Old English had both masculine and feminine 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 , which has a cognate in Middle Low German (attested from the 13th century, besides 'to bewitch').
The Brothers Grimm's connects the "Ingvaeonic word" with Gothic 'sacred' (Proto-Indo European (PIE) 'to separate, to divide', probably via early Germanic practices of cleromancy such as those reported by Tacitus).
R. Lühr connects 'prophetic, mantic', 'to practice divination' (Middle Low German 'bewitch', 'soothsayer') and suggests Proto-Germanic , geminated (c.f. Kluge's law) to . The basic form would then be the feminine, < < with palatalization due to the preceding i and the following *æ < *ōn in early Ingvaeonic. The palatal -cc- in would then be analogous to the feminine.
Related terms
Another Old English word for 'witch' was or , 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 ('male witch').
History
Middle Ages
The earliest recorded use of the word "witch" is in the Laws of Ælfred, which date to about 890:
In the homilies of the Old English grammarian Ælfric, dating to the late 10th century we find:
The word also appears in Halitgar's earlier Latin Penitential, but only once in the phrase ('as the witches teach'), which seems to be an addition to Halitgar's original, added by an 11th-century Old English translator.
In Old English glossaries the words and are used to gloss such Latin terms as , and , all of which mean 'diviner, soothsayer'.
Early modern period
In medieval and early modern Europe, there were people who provided services such as thwarting witchcraft, curing bewitchment, healing, divination, fortune-telling, finding lost or stolen goods, and love magic. Alan McFarlane writes that they were sometimes specified as 'white', 'good', or 'unbinding' witches, but were more often known as cunning folk or wise folk. Historian Owen Davies says the term "white witch" was rarely used before the 20th century. Emma Wilby says folk magicians in Europe were viewed ambivalently by communities, and were considered as capable of harming as of healing, which could lead to them being accused as being "witches" in the negative sense. Éva Pócs says that half the accused witches in Hungary seem to have been healers, and Kathleen Stokker says the "vast majority" of Norway's accused witches were folk healers. Ronald Hutton says that healers and cunning folk "were sometimes denounced as witches, but seem to have made up a minority of the accused in any area studied". Likewise, Davies says "relatively few cunning-folk were prosecuted under secular statutes for witchcraft" and were dealt with more leniently than alleged witches.
Johannes Nider and other 15th century writers used the Latin term to mean witch—a person who performed , harmful acts of sorcery, against others. The introduction of the idea of demonic forces empowering the acts of gave the term witch new connotations of idolatry and apostasy that were adopted by (1486), but these remained disputed despite papal injunctions to take action against witches.
In 17th century Russia, societal concern about the practice of "witches" related to whether their powers could cause harm. Peasants in Russian and Ukrainian societies often shunned witches, unless they felt they needed help against supernatural forces. Impotence, stomach pains, barrenness, hernias, abscesses, epileptic seizures, and convulsions were all attributed to evil (or witchcraft). In Russia, three quarters of those accused of witchcraft were men.
When Europeans encountered other cultures and began the process of colonization, they discovered a variety of religious and cultural expressions of magic, including shamans, witch doctors, folk healers, and medicine men which were sometimes considered by Europeans to be witches. In Friuli, for instance, there was a culture of individuals with shamanistic practices known as benandanti (literally 'well-farers'), who claimed that they battled witches, but who inquisitors nevertheless determined were witches themsevles.
Modern
In current colloquial English witch is almost exclusively applied to women, with the male equivalent being warlock or wizard.
Contemporary dictionaries currently distinguishes four meanings of the noun witch, including: a person (especially a woman) credited 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.
Figurative use to refer to a bewitching young girl begins in the 18th century, while wiche as a contemptuous term for an old woman is attested since the 15th century. "A witch of Endor" (alluding to ) as a fanciful term for a medium appears in 19th-century literature.
See also
Etymology of Wicca
References
Further reading
Includes a table of Old English laws on perjury, magic, lybblac, secret murder, prostitution and idol worship listing terms used in each law.
Etymology
Etymologies
English words