witch

• enPR: wĭch, IPA^(key): /wɪtʃ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪtʃ
• Homophone: which (in accents with the wine-whine merger), wich, wych

From Middle English wicche, from Old English wiċċe (“sorceress, witch”) f. and wicca (“witch, sorcerer, warlock”) m., deverbative from wiccian (“to practice sorcery”), from Proto-Germanic *wikkōną (compare West Frisian wikje, wikke (“to foretell, warn”), Low German wicken (“to soothsay”), Dutch wikken, wichelen (“to dowse, divine”)), from Proto-Indo-European *wik-néh₂-, derivation of *weyk- (“to consecrate; separate”);[1] akin to Latin victima (“sacrificial victim”), Lithuanian viẽkas (“life-force”), Sanskrit विनक्ति (vinákti, “to set apart, separate out”).

witch (plural witches)

1. A person who practices witchcraft; a woman or (archaic outside dialects and Wicca) man who practices witchcraft.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter viij, in Le Morte Darthur, book I:

     Some of the kynges had merueyl of Merlyns wordes and demed well that it shold be as he said / And som of hem lough hym to scorne / as kyng Lot / and mo other called hym a wytche / But thenne were they accorded with Merlyn that kynge Arthur shold come oute and speke with the kynges.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Wyclif Bible (Acts viii. 9)

     There was a man in that city whose name was Simon, a witch.

   1. (now usually particularly) A woman who is learned in and actively practices witchcraft.
      • (Can we date this quote?) Shakespeare:

        He cannot abide the old woman of Brentford; he swears she's a witch.

2. (derogatory) An ugly or unpleasant woman.

   I hate that old witch.

3. One who exercises more-than-common power of attraction; a charming or bewitching person.
4. One given to mischief, especially a woman or child.
5. (geometry) A certain curve of the third order, described by Maria Agnesi under the name versiera.
6. The stormy petrel.
7. Any of a number of flatfish:
   1. Glyptocephalus cynoglossus (Torbay sole), found in the North Atlantic.
   2. Lepidorhombus whiffiagonis (megrim), found in the North Atlantic.
   3. Arnoglossus scapha, found near New Zealand.

• (person who uses magic): See Thesaurus:magician
• (female magic user): wizardess, sorceress
• (male magic user): wizard, sorcerer, warlock
• (an ugly or unpleasant woman): See Thesaurus:old woman or Thesaurus:ugly woman or Thesaurus:shrew

• Arnoglossus scapha on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Arnoglossus scapha on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Arnoglossus scapha on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

witch (third-person singular simple present witches, present participle witching, simple past and past participle witched)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To practise witchcraft.
2. (obsolete, transitive) To bewitch.
   • 1900, Gilbert Murray, Andromache: A Play in Three Acts:

     She has witched the Queen's womb long ago, and witched the whole harvest.

3. (transitive) To dowse for water.
   • 1964, Hilda E. Webb, Water Witching and Other Folk Talents in the Neighborhood of Bloomington, Indiana:

     And I told him there's a vein down there, I know 'caus I used to--uh, I went out here and witched one for this house, at the corner.

   • 2006, Helen Ayers, Appalachian Daughter: The Exodus of the Mountaineers from Appalachia:

     Nothing would make him shut up until I brought my dogwood stick into his office and witched for water.

   • 2010, C.J. Ott, True Stories: Memories, Musings, Odds and Ends:

     Eventually, Don and Jim built nice big houses on their lots. We enjoyed watching them being built. I remember Don's builder came out and “witched” for a well.

• witcher

Compare wick.

witch (plural witches)

1. A cone of paper which is placed in a vessel of lard or other fat and used as a taper.

• wutch, whitch

From Middle English wicche, from Old English wiċċe (“sorceress, witch”) f. and wicca (“witch, sorcerer”) m., deverbative from wiccian (“to practice sorcery”), from Proto-Germanic *wikkōną (compare West Frisian wikje, wikke (“to foretell, warn”), Low German wicken (“to soothsay”), Dutch wikken, wichelen (“to dowse, divine”)), from Proto-Indo-European *wik-néh₂-, derivation of *weyk- (“to consecrate; separate”);[1] akin to Latin victima (“sacrificial victim”), Lithuanian viẽkas (“life-force”), Sanskrit विनक्ति (vinákti, “to set apart, separate out”).

witch (plural witchs)

1. witch; a person, chiefly a woman, skilled in sorcery
   1. warlock
2. (transferred) various animals, insects and objects in some way associated with witches
   1. a moth in general; a tortoiseshell butterfly
   2. the pole flounder or dab, Glyptocephalus cynoglossus
   3. the seaweed, Laminaria saccharina
   4. a red clay marble, generally one that is considered effective in winning games, a “wizard”

• (female magic user): ell-woman, galdragon, gyre carline, hexie, sorceres, wancanny carlin, weird-woman, wise woman, wise wife, witch-carline, witch-queen, witch-wife
• (male magic user): juglour, sorcerar, varlet, warlock, weird

witch (third-person singular present, present participle witching, past witchit, past participle witchit)

1. (transitive) To harm (a person, etc.) by means of witchcraft; to bewitch, cast a spell on
2. (figuratively) To affect or influence as by witchcraft

• “witch” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.