Witch (word)
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The English word witch, from the Old English Template:Wikt-lang, 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.[1]
Etymology
The modern spelling witch with the medial 't' first appears in the 16th century. Old English had both masculine (Script error: No such module "Lang".) and feminine (Script error: No such module "Lang".) forms of the word,[2] but the masculine meaning became less common in Standard English, being replaced by words like "warlock" and "wizard".[3]
The origins of the word are Germanic, rooted in the Old English verb Template:Wikt-lang, which has a cognate in Middle Low German Template:Wikt-lang (attested from the 13th century, besides Template:Wikt-lang 'to bewitch').
The Brothers Grimm's Script error: No such module "Lang". connects the "Ingvaeonic word" Script error: No such module "Lang". with Gothic Template:Wikt-lang 'sacred' (Proto-Indo European (PIE) Script error: No such module "Lang". 'to separate, to divide', probably via early Germanic practices of cleromancy such as those reported by Tacitus).[4][5][6]
R. Lühr connects Script error: No such module "Lang". 'prophetic, mantic', Script error: No such module "Lang". 'to practice divination' (Middle Low German Script error: No such module "Lang". 'bewitch', Script error: No such module "Lang". 'soothsayer') and suggests Proto-Germanic Script error: No such module "Lang"., geminated (cf. Kluge's law) to Script error: No such module "Lang".. The basic form would then be the feminine, Script error: No such module "Lang". < Script error: No such module "Lang". < Script error: No such module "Lang". with palatalization due to the preceding i and the following *æ < *ōn in early Ingvaeonic. The palatal -cc- Script error: No such module "IPA". in Script error: No such module "Lang". would then be analogous to the feminine.[7]
Related terms
Another Old English word for 'witch' was Script error: No such module "Lang". or Script error: No such module "Lang"., 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.[8]
The adjective 'wicked' and noun 'wickedness' apparently derive from the Old English Script error: No such module "Lang". ('male witch').[9]
History
Middle Ages
The earliest recorded use of the word "witch" is in the Laws of Ælfred, which date to about 890:[6][10][11]
In the homilies of the Old English grammarian Ælfric, dating to the late 10th century we find:
The word Script error: No such module "Lang". also appears in Halitgar's earlier Latin Penitential, but only once in the phrase Script error: No such module "Lang". ('as the witches teach'), which seems to be an addition to Halitgar's original, added by an 11th-century Old English translator.[12]
In Old English glossaries the words Script error: No such module "Lang". and Script error: No such module "Lang". are used to gloss such Latin terms as Template:Wikt-lang,[13] Template:Wikt-lang, Template:Wikt-lang, and Template:Wikt-lang, all of which mean 'diviner, soothsayer'.
Early modern period
Johannes Nider and other 15th century writers used the Latin term Script error: No such module "Lang". to mean witch—a person who performed Script error: No such module "Lang"., harmful acts of sorcery, against others. The introduction of the idea of demonic forces empowering the acts of Script error: No such module "Lang". gave the term witch new connotations of idolatry and apostasy that were adopted by Script error: No such module "Lang". (1486), but these remained disputed despite papal injunctions to take action against witches.[14]
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.[15]
Modern
In current colloquial English witch is typically applied to women, with the male equivalent being warlock or wizard.Script error: No such module "Unsubst". 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.[16] Figurative use to refer to a bewitching young girl begins in the 18th century.[17]
See also
References
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- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde IV, p. 506.
- ↑ Grimm's view is repeated by the Online Etymology Dictionary: "possible connection to Gothic Script error: No such module "Lang". 'holy' and Germanic Template:Wikt-lang 'consecrate,' s, 'the priests of a suppressed religion naturally become magicians to its successors or opponents.'"
- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ R. Lühr, Expressivität und Lautgesetz im Germanischen, Heidelberg (1988), p. 354
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ 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). Template:ISBN
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". North quotes Penitential, II.22, as in Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".Template:Incomplete citation
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Bailey, M. D. (2010). Battling Demons: Witchcraft, Heresy, and Reform in the Late Middle Ages. (n.p.): Pennsylvania State University Press. Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Samuel Richardson, Pamela; or virtue rewarded (1739–40) has: "Mrs. Jervis, said he, take the little witch from me"
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Further reading
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". Includes a table of Old English laws on perjury, magic, lybblac, secret murder, prostitution and idol worship listing terms used in each law.
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