The word ''witch'' derives from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

nouns ('male witch,

warlock A warlock is a male practitioner of witchcraft. Etymology and terminology The most commonly accepted etymology derives ''warlock'' from the Old English '' wǣrloga'', which meant "breaker of oaths" or "deceiver" and was given special applicatio ...

') and ('female witch'). The word's further origins in

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic branc ...

and

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-E ...

are unclear.

History

Throughout history there has not been a consistent definition of the term ''witch''.

Johannes Nider Johannes Nider (c. 1380 – 13 August 1438) was a German theologian. __NOTOC__ Life Nider was born in Swabia. He entered the Order of Preachers at Colmar and after profession was sent to Vienna for his philosophical studies, which he finishe ...

and other 15th century writers used the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

term to mean witch—a person who performed , harmful acts of sorcery, against others. The

witch hunts A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America took place in the Early Modern per ...

of medieval Europe differed from pre-Christian practices in condemning the witch as a moral corruption, rather than focusing on whether the act of sorcery was harmful, expanding the customary understanding of the concept. The introduction of the idea of demonic forces empowering the acts of gave the term ''witch'' new connotations of

idolatry Idolatry is the worship of a cult image or "idol" as though it were God. In Abrahamic religions (namely Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity, the Baháʼí Faith, and Islam) idolatry connotes the worship of something or someone other than the A ...

and

apostasy Apostasy (; grc-gre, ἀποστασία , 'a defection or revolt') is the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that i ...

that were adopted by , but these remained disputed despite papal injunctions to take action against witches.

Germanic etymology

The Old English verb has a cognate in

Middle Low German Middle Low German or Middle Saxon (autonym: ''Sassisch'', i.e. " Saxon", Standard High German: ', Modern Dutch: ') is a developmental stage of Low German. It developed from the Old Saxon language in the Middle Ages and has been documented i ...

(attested from the 13th century, besides '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 The roots of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) are basic parts of words that carry a lexical meaning, so-called morphemes. PIE roots usually have verbal meaning like "to eat" or "to run". Roots never occurred alone in the lang ...

from which it may have been derived. *The

OED The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...

states that the noun is "apparently"

deverbal Deverbal nouns are nouns that are derived from verbs or verb phrases. The formation of deverbal nouns is a type of nominalization (noun formation). Examples of deverbal nouns in English include ''organization'' (derived from the verb ''organize'') ...

(derived from ), but for the verb merely states that it is "of obscure origin". *Grimm, connects the "

Ingvaeonic North Sea Germanic, also known as Ingvaeonic , is a postulated grouping of the northern West Germanic languages that consists of Old Frisian, Old English, and Old Saxon, and their descendants. Ingvaeonic is named after the Ingaevones, a West Ge ...

word" with

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

'sacred' (

Proto-Indo European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-E ...

(PIE) 'to separate, to divide', probably via early Germanic practices of

cleromancy Cleromancy is a form of sortition (casting of lots) in which an outcome is determined by means that normally would be considered random, such as the rolling of dice, but that are sometimes believed to reveal the will of a deity. In classical civ ...

such as those reported by

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historiography, Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his t ...

). *Grimm also considers 'to curve, bend' (which became 'hop, dance') and 'to move' (in a sense of 'to make mysterious gestures'). *R. Lühr connects 'prophetic, mantic', 'to practice divination' (Middle Low German 'bewitch', ' soothsayer') and suggests Proto-Germanic ,

geminated In phonetics and phonology, gemination (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin 'doubling', itself from ''gemini'' 'twins'), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from s ...

(c.f.

Kluge's law Kluge's law is a controversial Proto-Germanic sound law formulated by Friedrich Kluge. It purports to explain the origin of the Proto-Germanic long consonants ''*kk'', ''*tt'', and ''*pp'' (Proto-Indo-European lacked a phonemic length distinction ...

) to . The basic form would then be the feminine, < < with palatalization due to the preceding ''i'' and the following ''*æ'' < ''*ōn'' in early

. The palatal ''-cc-'' in would then be analogous to the feminine. **An alternative possibility is to derive the palatal directly from the verb < . Lühr conversely favours derivation of this verb from the noun. *''

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language ''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'' (''AHD'') is an American English, American dictionary of English published by Boston publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Houghton Mifflin, the first edition of which appeared in 1969. ...

'' connects PIE 'rouse' (English ''wake''), and offers the Proto-Germanic reconstruction 'one who wakes the dead'.

From Old to Modern English

The

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...

word did not differentiate between feminine and masculine, however the masculine meaning became less common in

Standard English In an English-speaking country, Standard English (SE) is the variety of English that has undergone substantial regularisation and is associated with formal schooling, language assessment, and official print publications, such as public service a ...

, being replaced by words like " wizard" and "

". 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 or Ein Dor may refer to: Places * Endor (village), from the Hebrew Bible, a Canaanite village where the Witch of Endor lived * Indur, a Palestinian village depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war * Ein Dor, a Kibbutz in modern Israel F ...

" (alluding to ) as a fanciful term for a medium appears in 19th-century literature. The meaning "an adherent of

Wicca Wicca () is a modern Pagan religion. Scholars of religion categorise it as both a new religious movement and as part of the occultist stream of Western esotericism. It was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and was ...

" (male or female) is due to

Gerald Gardner Gerald Brosseau Gardner (13 June 1884 – 12 February 1964), also known by the craft name Scire, was an English Wiccan, as well as an author and an amateur anthropologist and archaeologist. He was instrumental in bringing the Contemporary Pag ...

's purported " Witch Cult", and now appears as a separate meaning of the word also in mainstream dictionaries. For example, ''Merriam-Webster'' currently distinguishes four meanings of the noun ''witch'', :1. "a person (especially a woman) who is credited with having usually malignant supernatural powers" :2. "a practitioner of witchcraft especially in adherence with a neo-pagan tradition or religion (such as Wicca)" :3. "a mean or ugly old woman:

hag HAG is a Swiss maker of model trains. The company was founded by Hugo and Alwin Gahler on 1 April 1944 in St. Gallen, Switzerland. The Gahler brothers originally manufactured model trains in O scale but due to competition, particularly by Märk ...

crone In folklore, a crone is an old woman who may be characterized as disagreeable, malicious, or sinister in manner, often with magical or supernatural associations that can make her either helpful or obstructive. The Crone is also an archetypal fig ...

" :4. "a charming or alluring girl or woman" Other suggestions for the underlying root are untenable or widely rejected: * Grimm reject a connection with 'speak', suggested by P. Lessiak (ZfDA 53, 1912). *

Walter William Skeat Walter William Skeat, (21 November 18356 October 1912) was a British philologist and Anglican deacon. The pre-eminent British philologist of his time, he was instrumental in developing the English language as a higher education subject in th ...

derived the word from PIE , Old English 'wise man, wizard' and 'to know', considering it a corruption of an earlier . No Old English spelling with ''-t-'' is known, and this etymology is not accepted today. *

Robert Graves Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was a British poet, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were both Celtic ...

in his 1948 ''

The White Goddess ''The 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, the book is based on earlier articles published in ''Wales'' magazi ...

'', in discussing the

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...

which was sacred to the Greek goddess

Hecate Hecate or Hekate, , ; grc-dor, Ἑκάτᾱ, Hekátā, ; la, Hecatē or . is a goddess in ancient Greek religion and mythology, most often shown holding a pair of torches, a key, snakes, or accompanied by dogs, and in later periods depicte ...

, connects the word to a root 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 'witch, fury', whence Modern English ''

'', of uncertain origin, but cognate to German , from an Old High German ,

(

), perhaps from a 'to mar, damage', meaning 'field-damager' (the suggestion of

Grimm Grimm may refer to: People * Grimm (surname) * Brothers Grimm, German linguists ** Jacob Grimm (1785–1863), German philologist, jurist and mythologist ** Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859), German author, the younger of the Brothers Grimm * Christia ...

). The element ''hag-'' originally means 'fence, wooden enclosure', and hence also 'enclosed fields, cultivated land'. Other Old English synonyms of and include , , . The Old English plural form for both the masculine and feminine nouns was ('witches') and was '

witchcraft Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have us ...

'. The earliest recorded use of the word is in the ''Laws of Ælfred'', which date to about 890: In the homilies of the Old English grammarian

Ælfric Ælfric (Old English ', Middle English ''Elfric'') is an Anglo-Saxon given name. Churchmen *Ælfric of Eynsham (c. 955–c. 1010), late 10th century Anglo-Saxon abbot and writer *Ælfric of Abingdon (died 1005), late 10th century Anglo-Saxon Archbi ...

, dating to the late 10th century we find: In both these examples is the plural noun, not an adjective. The adjective ('foul') can mean 'physically unclean' as well as 'morally or spiritually unclean' or 'wicked'. In Old English glossaries the words and are used to gloss such Latin terms as , , , and , all of which mean 'diviner, soothsayer', which suggests a possible role of fortune-teller for the witch in

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

times. The word is associated with animistic healing rites in

Halitgar Halitgar (Halitgarius, Halitcharius, Halitgaire, Aligerio) was a ninth-century bishop of Cambrai (in office 817–831). He is known also as an apostle to the Danes, and the writer of a widely known penitential. Life In 822 he travelled to Denmark ...

'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 ('as the witches teach') seems to be an addition to Halitgar's original, added by an 11th-century Old English translator. Petterson cites Halitgar's Penitential, II.22, as in Die Altenglische Version des Halitgar'schen Bussbuches, ed. Raith, p29; quoted in North, Richard, ''Heathen Gods in Old English Literature'', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1997, p. 276.

Other languages

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

has a few fairly common words that are related to English ''witch'', such as (' dowsing rod') and (

astrologer Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Dif ...

History

Germanic etymology

From Old to Modern English

Old English

Other languages

See also

Notes

Further reading