Etymology
1. O.E.
wicce "female magician, sorceress," in later use esp. "a woman supposed to have dealings with the devil or evil spirits and to be able by their cooperation to perform supernatural acts," fem. of O.E.
wicca "sorcerer, wizard, man who practices witchcraft or magic," from verb
wiccian "to practice witchcraft" (cf. Low Ger.
wikken, wicken "to use witchcraft,"
wikker, wicker "soothsayer"). OED says of uncertain origin. Klein suggests connection with O.E.
wigle "divination," and
wig, wih "idol." Watkins says the nouns represent a P.Gmc.
*wikkjaz "necromancer" (one who wakes the dead), from PIE
*weg-yo-, from
*weg- "to be strong, be lively." That
wicce once had a more specific sense than the later general one of "female magician, sorceress" perhaps is suggested by the presence of other words in O.E. describing more specific kinds of magical craft. In the Laws of Ælfred (c.890), witchcraft was specifically singled out as a woman's craft, whose practitioners were not to be suffered to live among the W. Saxons:
"Ða fæmnan þe gewuniað onfon gealdorcræftigan & scinlæcan & wiccan, ne læt þu ða libban."
The other two words combined with it here are
gealdricge, a woman who practices "incantations," and
scinlæce "female wizard, woman magician," from a root meaning "phantom, evil spirit." Another word that appears in the Anglo-Saxon laws is
lyblæca "wizard, sorcerer," but with suggestions of skill in the use of drugs, since the root of the word is
lybb "drug, poison, charm."
Lybbestre was a fem. word meaning "sorceress," and
lybcorn was the name of a certain medicinal seed (perhaps wild saffron). Weekly notes possible connection to Gothic
weihs "holy" and Ger.
weihan "consecrate," and writes, "the priests of a suppressed religion naturally become magicians to its successors or opponents." In Anglo-Saxon glossaries,
wicca renders L.
augur (c.1100), and
wicce stands for "pythoness,
divinatricem." In the "Three Kings of Cologne" (c.1400)
wicca translates
Magi:
"Þe paynyms ... cleped þe iij kyngis Magos, þat is to seye wicchis."
The glossary translates L.
necromantia (
"demonum invocatio") with
galdre, wiccecræft. The Anglo-Saxon poem called "Men's Crafts" has
wiccræft, which appears to be the same word, and by its context means "skill with horses." In a c.1250 translation of "Exodus,"
witches is used of the Egyptian midwives who save the newborn sons of the Hebrews: "Ðe wicches hidden hem for-ðan, Biforen pharaun nolden he ben."
Witch in ref. to a man survived in dialect into 20c., but the fem. form was so dominant by 1601 that
men-witches or
he-witch began to be used. Extended sense of "young woman or girl of bewitching aspect or manners" is first recorded 1740.
Witch doctor is from 1718; applied to African magicians from 1836.
"At this day it is indifferent to say in the English tongue, 'she is a witch,' or 'she is a wise woman.' " [Reginald Scot, "The Discoverie of Witchcraft," 1584]
2. Etymology tree
3. Old English wiċċe
4. Proto-Germanic *wikkōną
5. Proto-West Germanic *wikkōn
6. Proto-Indo-European *-ō
7. Proto-Germanic *-ô
8. Proto-West Germanic *-ō
9. Proto-West Germanic *wikkō
10. Old English wiċċa
11. Middle English wicche
12. English witch
13. The noun is from Middle English wicche, from Old English wiċċe (“(female) witch; sorceress”) and wiċċa (“(male) witch; sorcerer; warlock”), deverbative from wiċċian (“to practice sorcery”), from Proto-Germanic *wikkōną (compare West Frisian wikje, wikke (“to foretell; to warn”), German Low German wicken (“to soothsay”), Dutch wikken, wichelen (“to dowse; to divine”)), from Proto-Indo-European *wik-néh₂-, derivation of *weyk- (“to consecrate; to separate”); akin to Latin victima (“sacrificial victim”), Lithuanian viẽkas (“life-force”), Sanskrit वि॒नक्ति॑ (vinákti, “to set apart; to separate out”). Possibly related to wicked; see that entry for more. The verb derives from the noun.
14. The mathematical curve derives from a translation by John Colson of the Italian versiera, from a confusion with versoria (“rope”) and avversaria (“witch”). See: Proto-Germanic '
*wikkōną', Dutch '
wikken'.
Verbs referencing "witch"
Sranan
wisi, Sanskrit
विनक्ति.