Witch (word)

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 (cf. 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 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 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. Modern In current colloquial English witch is typically applied to women, with the male equivalent being warlock or wizard. 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. Figurative use to refer to a bewitching young girl begins in the 18th century. The application of the word in modern times has ties to newer women's movements showing a connection between the many origins of the word to the treatment of women today. An example can be found in Rome during a demonstration against the Italian laws around abortion, around 100,000 women chanted in unison: ==See also==