{"id":7241,"date":"2026-02-10T20:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/?p=7241"},"modified":"2026-02-10T20:31:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:31:05","slug":"word-of-the-day-witch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/2026\/02\/10\/word-of-the-day-witch\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Day: Witch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today\u2019s word of the day, as a follow up to yesterday’s, is witch<\/em>. Pronounced \/ w\u026at\u0283 \/, this noun means \u201ca person, especially a woman, who professes or is supposed to practice magic or sorcery; a sorceress,\u201d \u201ca woman who is supposed to have evil or wicked magical powers,\u201d \u201ca person who practices magic as a spiritual observance, especially as associated with neopaganism or Wicca,\u201d \u201can ugly or mean old woman; hag,\u201d or \u201ca person who uses a divining rod; dowser\u201d (https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/browse\/witch<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Merriam-Webster, it can also mean \u201ca charming or alluring girl or woman\u201d (https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/witch<\/a>), which seems a bit the opposite of what most people think of as a witch. M-W also says that witch<\/em> can also be a verb, \u201cto affect injuriously with witchcraft\u201d or \u201cto influence or beguile with allure or charm\u201d (ibid.). However, I think most people, at least today, would use the form bewitch<\/em> instead. The be-<\/em> is a word forming element that usually creates verbs from nouns, as in beguile<\/em>, bedevil<\/em>, bedazzle<\/em>, befall<\/em>, and become<\/em> (https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/word\/be-<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Etymoline.com has a lot to say about witch<\/em>. It appears as \u201cMiddle English wicche<\/em>, from Old English wicce <\/em>\u2018female magician, sorceress,\u2019 in later use especially \u2018a woman supposed to have dealings with the devil or evil spirits and to be able by their cooperation to perform supernatural acts,\u2019 fem. of Old English wicca <\/em>\u2018sorcerer, wizard, man who practices witchcraft or magic,\u2019 from verb wiccian <\/em>\u2018to practice witchcraft.\u2019 Compare Low German wikken<\/em>, wicken <\/em>\u2018to use witchcraft,\u2019 wikker<\/em>, wicker <\/em>\u2018soothsayer.\u2019
\u201cOED says it is of uncertain origin; Liberman writes, \u2018None of the proposed etymologies of witch <\/em>is free from phonetic or semantic difficulties.\u2019 Watkins says the nouns represent a Proto-Germanic *wikkjaz <\/em>\u2018necromancer\u2019 (one who wakes the dead), from PIE root *weg-<\/strong><\/a> \u2018to be strong, be lively.\u2019
Klein’s sources suggests connection with Old English wigle \u2018<\/em>divination,\u2019 and wig, wih \u2018<\/em>idol\u2019; Weekley also notes this, citing Gothic weihs \u2018<\/em>holy\u2019 and German weihan \u2018<\/em>consecrate,\u2019 and writes, \u2018the priests of a suppressed religion naturally become magicians to its successors or opponents.
\u201cThat wicce <\/em>once had a more specific sense than the later general one of \u2018female magician, sorceress\u2019 perhaps is suggested by the presence of other words in Old English describing more specific kinds of magical craft. In the Laws of \u00c6lfred (c. 890), witchcraft was specifically singled out as a woman’s craft, whose practitioners were not to be suffered to live among the West Saxons:
\u00d0a f\u00e6mnan \u00fee gewunia\u00f0 onfon gealdorcr\u00e6ftigan & scinl\u00e6can & wiccan, ne l\u00e6t \u00feu \u00f0a libban<\/em>. [Those women to live who are accustomed to receiving sorcery, fortune-tellers, and witches, do not let them live.]
\u201cThe other two words are gealdricge<\/em>, a woman who practices \u2018incantations,\u2019 and scinl\u00e6ce \u2018<\/em>female wizard, woman magician,\u2019 from a root meaning \u2018phantom, evil spirit.\u2019
\u201cAnother word in Anglo-Saxon laws is lybl\u00e6ca \u2018<\/em>wizard, sorcerer,\u2019 perhaps with suggestions of skill in the use of drugs (the root of the word is lybb \u2018<\/em>drug, poison, charm,\u2019 for which see leaf<\/strong><\/a> (n.)). Lybbestre <\/em>was a fem. word meaning \u2018sorceress,\u2019 and lybcorn <\/em>was the name of a certain medicinal seed (perhaps wild saffron). The use of a \u2018poisoner\u2019 word for \u2018witch, sorceress\u2019 would parallel that of the Hebrew word used for \u2018witch, sorceress\u2019 in the Levitical condemnation.
\u201cIn Anglo-Saxon glossaries, wicca <\/em>renders Latin augur <\/em>(c. 1100), and wicce <\/em>stands for \u2018pythoness, divinatricem<\/em>.\u2019 In the \u2018Three Kings of Cologne\u2019 (c. 1400) wicca <\/em>translates Magi<\/em>:
\u00dee paynyms … cleped \u00fee iij kyngis Magos<\/em>, \u00feat is to seye wicchis. [The pagans called the three kings Magi, that is to say, witches.]
\u201cThe glossary translates Latin necromantia <\/em>(\u2018demonum invocatio\u2019<\/em>) with galdre, wiccecr\u00e6ft<\/em>. The Anglo-Saxon poem called \u2018Men’s Crafts\u2019 (also \u2018The Gifts of Men\u2019) has wiccr\u00e6ft<\/em>, which appears to be the same word, and by its context means \u2018skill with horses.\u2019 In a c. 1250 translation of \u2018Exodus,\u2019 witches <\/em>is used of the Egyptian midwives who save the newborn sons of the Hebrews: \u2018\u00d0e wicches hidden hem for-\u00f0an, Biforen pharaun nolden he ben. [The witches hid themselves then, before Pharaoh they did not want to be.]
\u201cWitch <\/em>in reference to a man survived in dialect into 20c., but the fem. form was so dominant by c. 1600 that men-witches <\/em>or he-witch <\/em>began to be used.
\u201cThe extended sense of \u2018old, ugly, and crabbed or malignant woman\u2019 is from early 15c; that of \u2018young woman or girl of bewitching aspect or fascinating manners\u2019 is recorded by 1740\u201d (https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/search?q=witch<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of witches, one of my all-time favorite movies began production this month in 1958. Based on a 1950 Broadway play of the same name, the movie was called Bell, Book, and Candle<\/em>, and it starred Jimmy Stewart (one of my all-time favorite actors) and Kim Novak, along with Jack Lemmon and Ernie Kovacs, among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In both the play and the movie, Gillian Holroyd (played by Novak in the movie) is a witch living in New York City. She owns a building, her store on the first floor and apartments above. She rents an apartment to Shep Henderon (played by Stewart). To make a long story short, she puts a spell on him to get him to fall for her, with the help of her familiar cat, Pyewacket. Part of her reason for doing so is that he is already engaged to Merle Kittridge, a woman who was a fierce rival of Gillian\u2019s when they were in college. Merle is mentioned in the play, but she never makes an appearance. In the movie, however, she is a character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a paranormal romcom, so of course the romance runs into trouble, but I won\u2019t say anything more about it, except this. Toward the end of the film, Shep goes to see Merle to explain why he broke off the engagement. And they have this lovely exchange:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shep: That girl you know, Gillian Holroyd, she\u2019s one.
Merle: A witch?
Shep: Yes.
Merle: Shep, you just never learned to spell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can find the clip just after the 89-minute mark of the movie (https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=70s1OPboJJ8).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wonder if the amount of information regarding the word witch is due, in part, to our fascination with the idea of women having access to magical powers. Even among most American Christians, despite the Biblical injunction to kill witches (see Exodus 22: 18 and Leviticus 20: 27), there is a fascination with witches. The Wizard of Oz<\/em>, based upon a series of novels from the early 20th<\/sup> century, is one of the most popular movies ever made. American evangelicals, normally the most literal minded of American Christians, love C. S. Lewis\u2019s Narnia series, which has witches. And J. K. Rowling\u2019s Harry Potter series, which contains good witches and bad witches, has made its author a billionaire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are, of course, some people who still speak out concerning the dangers of witchcraft (https:\/\/www.focusonthefamily.com\/parenting\/the-rise-of-witchcraft-popular-culture-is-there-a-connection\/), but I\u2019m not worried about it. To be worried about the dangers of women who practice magic, you have to believe in magic, and the only magic I believe in is the magic of the theater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s image is from the scene described above in Bell, Book, and Candle<\/em>, starring Jimmy Stewart and Janice Rule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s word of the day, as a follow up to yesterday’s, is witch. Pronounced \/ w\u026at\u0283 \/, this noun means \u201ca person, especially a woman, who professes or is supposed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[936,238,395,284,935],"class_list":["post-7241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-word-of-the-day","tag-bell-book-and-candle","tag-dictionary","tag-etymology","tag-linguistics","tag-witch","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7243,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7241\/revisions\/7243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}