Witch (etymology)
Encyclopedia
Proto-Indo-European language
The Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...
are unclear.
Germanic etymology
The Old English verb wiccian has a cognate in Middle Low GermanMiddle Low German
Middle Low German is a language that is the descendant of Old Saxon and is the ancestor of modern Low German. It served as the international lingua franca of the Hanseatic League...
wicken (attested from the 13th century, besides wichelen "to bewitch"). The further etymology of this word is problematic. It has no clear cognates in Germanic outside of English and Low German, and there are numerous possibilities for the Indo-European root from which it may have been derived.
- The OED states that the noun is "apparently" deverbal (derived from wiccian), but for the verb merely states that it is "of obscure origin".
- Grimm, Deutsches WörterbuchDeutsches WörterbuchDas Deutsche Wörterbuch / Deutsches Wörterbuch is one of the most important dictionaries of the German language...
connects the "IngvaeonicIngvaeonicIngvaeonic , also known as North Sea Germanic, is a postulated grouping of the West Germanic languages that comprises Old Frisian, Old English and Old Saxon....
word" *wikkōn with Gothic weihs "sacred" (Proto-Indo European (PIE) *weik- "to separate, to divide", probably via early Germanic practices of cleromancyCleromancyCleromancy is a form of divination using sortition, casting of lots, or casting bones or stones, in which an outcome is determined by means that normally would be considered random, such as the rolling of dice, but are sometimes believed to reveal the will of God, or other supernatural entities.-In...
such as those reported by TacitusTacitusPublius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...
, - Grimm also considers *weik- "to curve, bend" (which became wicken "hop, dance") and *weg'h- "to move" (in a sense of "to make mysterious gestures").
- R. Lühr connects wigol "prophetic, mantic", wīglian "to practice divination" (Middle Low German wichelen "bewitch", wicker "soothsayer") and suggests Proto-Germanic *wigōn, geminated (c.f. Verschärfung) to *wikkōn. The basic form would then be the feminine, wicce < *wikkæˈ' < *wikkōn with palatalization due to the preceding i and the following *æ < *ōn in early IngvaeonicIngvaeonicIngvaeonic , also known as North Sea Germanic, is a postulated grouping of the West Germanic languages that comprises Old Frisian, Old English and Old Saxon....
. The palatal -cc- /t͡ʃ/ in wicca would then be analogous to the feminine.- An alternative possibility is to derive the palatal /t͡ʃ/ directly from the verb wiccian < *wikkija. Lühr conversely favours derivation of this verb from the noun.
- The American Heritage Dictionary connects PIE *weg'- "rouse" (English wake), and offers the Proto-Germanic reconstruction *wikkjaz "one who wakes the dead".
Other suggestions for the underlying root are untenable or widely rejected:
- Grimm reject a connection with *wek- "speak", suggested by P. Lessiak (ZfDA 53, 1912).
- Walter William SkeatWalter William SkeatWalter William Skeat , English philologist, was born in London on the 21st of November 1835, and educated at King's College School , Highgate School, and Christ's College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow in July 1860. His grandsons include the noted palaeographer T. C...
derived the word from PIE *weid-, Old English wita "wise man, wizard" and witan "to know", considering it a corruption of an earlier *witga. No Old English spelling with -t- is known, and this etymology is not accepted today. - Robert GravesRobert GravesRobert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...
in his 1948 The White GoddessThe White GoddessThe White Goddess: a Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth is a book-length essay on the nature of poetic myth-making by author and poet Robert Graves. First published in 1948, based on earlier articles published in Wales magazine, corrected, revised and enlarged editions appeared in 1948, 1952 and 1961...
, in discussing the willowWillowWillows, sallows, and osiers form the genus Salix, around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere...
which was sacred to the Greek goddess HecateHecateHecate or Hekate is a chthonic Greco-Roman goddess associated with magic, witchcraft, necromancy, and crossroads.She is attested in poetry as early as Hesiod's Theogony...
, connects the word to a root *wei- which connotes bending or pliance, by saying: "Its connection with witches is so strong in Northern Europe, that the words 'witch' and 'wicked' are derived from the same ancient word for willow, which also yields 'wicker'." This confounds English and Scandinavian evidence, since the weak root in English has no connection with willows, and Old Norse has no word for "witch" cognate to the English.
Old English
Old English also had hægtesse "witch, fury", whence Modern English hagHag
A hag is a wizened old woman, or a kind of fairy or goddess having the appearance of such a woman, often found in folklore and children's tales such as Hansel and Gretel. Hags are often seen as malevolent, but may also be one of the chosen forms of shapeshifting deities, such as the Morrígan or...
, of uncertain origin, but cognate to German Hexe, from an Old High German haga-zussa, Common Germanic *haga-tusjon- (OED), perhaps from a *tesvian "to mar, damage", meaning "field-damager" (the suggestion of Grimm
Deutsches Wörterbuch
Das Deutsche Wörterbuch / Deutsches Wörterbuch is one of the most important dictionaries of the German language...
). The element hag- originally means "fence, wooden enclosure", and hence also "enclosed fields, cultivated land".
Other Old English synonyms of wicca and wicce include gealdricge, scinlæce, hellrúne.
The Old English plural form for both the masculine and feminine nouns was wiccan (= "witches") and wiccecræft was "witchcraft". The earliest recorded use of the word is in the Laws of Ælfred which date to circa 890:
- 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
Ælfric of Eynsham
Ælfric of Eynsham was an English abbot, as well as a consummate, prolific writer in Old English of hagiography, homilies, biblical commentaries, and other genres. He is also known variously as Ælfric the Grammarian , Ælfric of Cerne, and Ælfric the Homilist...
, dating to the late tenth century we find:
- Ne sceal se cristena befrinan tha fulan wiccan be his gesundfulnysse.
- A Christian should not consult foul witches concerning his prosperity.
In both these examples wiccan is the plural noun, not an adjective. The adjective fulan (foul) can mean "physically unclean" as well as "morally or spiritually unclean" or "wicked".
In Old English glossaries the words wicce and wicca are used to gloss such Latin terms as hariolus, conjector, and pythonyssa, all of which mean "diviner", "soothsayer", which suggests a possible role of fortune-teller for the witch in Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
times.
The word wicca is associated with animistic healing rites in Halitgar
Halitgar
Halitgar was a ninth-century bishop of Cambrai . He is known also as an apostle to the Danes, and the writer of a widely-known penitential.-Life:...
's Latin Penitential where it is stated that
- Some men are so blind that they bring their offering to earth-fast stone and also to trees and to wellsprings, as the witches teach, and are unwilling to understand how stupidly they do or how that dead stone or that dumb tree might help them or give forth health when they themselves are never able to stir from their place.
The phrase swa wiccan tæcaþ ("as the witches teach") seems to be an addition to Halitgar's original, added by an eleventh century Old English translator.
From Old to Modern English
The Middle EnglishMiddle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
word wicche did not differentiate between feminine and masculine, however the masculine meaning became less common in Standard English
Standard English
Standard English refers to whatever form of the English language is accepted as a national norm in an Anglophone country...
, being replaced by words like "wizard" and "warlock". The modern spelling witch with the medial 't' first appears in the 16th century. In current colloquial English "witch" is almost exclusively applied to women, and the OED has "now only dialectal" for the masculine noun.
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
Endor (village)
Endor was a Canaanite city which is listed in the Book of Joshua as one of the cities with its dependencies that the Israelites failed to dispossess. It is located between the Hill of Moreh and Mount Tabor in the Jezreel Valley....
" (alluding to ) as a fanciful term for a medium appears in 19th century literature.
The meaning "an adherent of Wicca
Wicca
Wicca , is a modern Pagan religious movement. Developing in England in the first half of the 20th century, Wicca was popularised in the 1950s and early 1960s by a Wiccan High Priest named Gerald Gardner, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft," and its adherents "the Wica."...
" (male or female) is due to Gerald Gardner
Gerald Gardner
Gerald Brousseau Gardner , who sometimes used the craft name Scire, was an influential English Wiccan, as well as an amateur anthropologist and archaeologist, writer, weaponry expert and occultist. He was instrumental in bringing the Neopagan religion of Wicca to public attention in Britain and...
's purported "Witch Cult", and now appears as a separate meaning of the word also in mainstream dictionaries. For example, Monier-Williams currently distinguishes four meanings of the noun witch,
- 1. one that is credited with usually malignant supernatural powers; especially: a woman practicing usually black witchcraft often with the aid of a devil or familiar : sorceress — compare warlockWarlockThe term warlock in origin means "traitor, oathbreaker".In early modern Scots, the word came to be used as the male equivalent of witch ....
- 2. an ugly old woman : hagHagA hag is a wizened old woman, or a kind of fairy or goddess having the appearance of such a woman, often found in folklore and children's tales such as Hansel and Gretel. Hags are often seen as malevolent, but may also be one of the chosen forms of shapeshifting deities, such as the Morrígan or...
- 3. a charming or alluring girl or woman
- 4. a practitioner of Wicca