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Definition: Witch |
WitchNoun1. A female sorcerer or magician. 2. A being (usually female) imagined to have special powers derived from the devil. 3. An ugly evil-looking old woman. Verb1. Cast a spell over someone or something; put a hex on someone or something. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "witch" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | WITCH, n. (1) Any ugly and repulsive old woman, in a wicked league with the devil. (2) A beautiful and attractive young woman, in wickedness a league beyond the devil. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Bible | Witch Occurs only in Ex. 22:18, as the rendering of _mekhashshepheh_, the feminine form of the word, meaning "enchantress" (R.V., "sorceress"), and in Deut. 18:10, as the rendering of _mekhashshepheth_, the masculine form of the word, meaning "enchanter." Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary. |
Dream Interpretation | To dream of witches, denotes that you, with others, will seek adventures which will afford hilarious enjoyment, but it will eventually rebound to your mortification. Business will suffer prostration if witches advance upon you, home affairs may be disappointing. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Literature | Witch By drawing the blood of a witch you deprive her of her power of sorcery. Glanvil says that when Jane Brooks, the demon of Tedworth, bewitched a boy, his father scratched her face and drew blood, whereupon the boy instantly exclaimed that he was well. "Blood will I draw on thee; thou art a witch." Shakespeare: $$$ Henry VI., i. 5. Hammer for Witches (Mallcus Maleficarum). A treatise drawn up by Heinrich Institor and Jacob Sprenger, systematising the whole doctrine of witchcraft, laying down a regular form of trial, and a course of examination. Innocent VIII. issued the celebrated bull Summis Desiderantes in 1484, directing inquisitors and others to put to death all practisers of witchcraft and other diabolical arts. Dr. Sprenger computes that as many as nine millions of persons have suffered death for witchcraft since the bull of Innocent. (Life of Mohammed.) As late as 1705 two women were executed at Northampton for witchcraft. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Multilingual Slang | Polish (franca, je,dza, wiedz'ma). (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The Salem witch trials were the result of a period of Puritan paranoia which led to the deaths of at least twenty-five people and the imprisonment of scores more.
Overview
In 1692, in Salem Village, (now Danvers, Massachusetts), a number of young girls, particularly Abigail Williams and Betty Parris, accused other townsfolk of magically possessing them, and therefore of being witches or warlocks. The community, besieged by Indians and dispossessed of their charter, the only form of government they had, believed the accusations, and sentenced these people to either confess they were witches or be hanged. The accusations spread quickly, and within only a couple of months had involved the neighboring communities of Andover, Amesbury, Salisbury, Haverhill, Topsfield, Ipswich, Rowley, Gloucester, Manchester, Maldon, Charleston, Billerica, Beverly, Reading, Woburn, Lynn, Marblehead, and Boston.
Why did the hysteria happen?
There are various theories as to why the community of Salem Village exploded into delusions of witchcraft and demonic interference. The most common one is that the Puritans, who governed Massachusetts Bay Colony with little royal intervention from its settlement in 1630 until the new Charter was installed in 1692, went through mass religion-induced hysterical delusion. Most modern experts view that as too simplistic an explanation. Other theories include child abuse, fortunetelling experiments gone amok, ergot-related paranoid fantasies (ergot is a fungus that grows on damp barley, producing a substance very similar to D-lysergic acid; in a pre-industrial society, it is easy to accidentally ingest it), conspiracy by the Putnam family to destroy the rival Porter family, and societal victimization of women.
There was also great stress within the Puritan community. They had lost their charter in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and in the spring of 1692 still did not know what their future would be. They were under constant Indian attack and could not depend on England at all for support; their militia came from the ranks of their young men, and in 1675's King Philip's War their entire population had been decimated: one of ten European settlers in New England was killed by Indian attacks. Though that war was over, Indian raids and skirmishes were a constant hazard. More and more, New England was becoming a mercantile colony, and Puritans and non-Puritans alike were making a lot of money, which the Puritans saw as both necessary and sinful. And as the merchant class rose in status, the ministerial class declined.
Perhaps the most compelling new theory is that of Mary Beth Norton, who wrote In The Devil's Snare. Her thesis: that any or all of the above explanations likely played an important role, but Salem and the rest of New England, and particularly the north and northwest areas, were besieged by frequent Indian attacks, which created an atmosphere of fear that contributed greatly to the hysteria. Her evidence: most of the accused witches and most of the afflicted girls had strong societal or personal ties to Indian attacks over the preceding fifteen years. The accusers frequently referenced a "black man," discussed joint meetings between the alleged witches and Indians in sabbats, and described images of torture taken directly from tales of Indian captivity. In addition, Puritan clergy had, since King Philip's War in 1675, frequently referred to Indians as being of the devil, had associated them with witchcraft and, in pulpit-pounding sermons that lasted as long as five hours, expounded repeatedly about Satan and his devils besieging the Puritans, who were seen as the army of God. In short, the Indian had been associated in the New England Puritan mind as the Devil. Therefore, concerted Indian attacks were the Devil trying to bring down the Puritan society, and one should expect attacks from within as well as without. By 1691, Puritans were primed for witchcraft hysteria.
Salem Village itself was a microcosm of Puritan stress. Half the Village were farmers and supported the minister, Samuel Parris, and breaking away from Salem Town to form their own distinct township; the other half of the Village wanted to remain part of Salem Town, retain the merchant ties, and refused to contribute to the maintenance of Parris and his family. In addition, a number of refugees from recent Indian attacks in the Maine and New Hampshire regions had taken shelter with relatives in Salem, bringing tales of horror with them. As a result, by 1691 Salem Village was a powder keg, and the spreading possession of young girls was the spark that set it off.
The Beginning
In the cold winter of 1691/2, Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, the daughter and ward of Reverend Samuel Parris, began to act peculiar, speaking oddly, hiding under things and creeping on the floor. No doctor Rev. Parris could bring forth could tell what ailed the girls, and at last one concluded that it was the hand of the Devil on them; in other words, they were possessed. Parris and other upstanding citizens began urging Betty and Abigail, and then new possessed children Ann Putnam, Betty Hubbard, Mercy Lewis, Susannah Sheldon, Mercy Short, and Mary Warren, to name those who afflicted them. At last the girls began to blurt out names.
The first three women to be accused were Sarah Good, Sarah Osborn, and Tituba. Sarah Good was the town beggar, dispossessed daughter of a French innkeeper (who committed suicide when Sarah was a teenager), who often "went away muttering" whether she was given sustenance or not. Sarah Osborn was a bedridden elderly woman who had gotten on the wrong side of the Putnams when she cheated her first husband's children out of their inheritance, giving it to her new husband. Tituba was the Carib Indian slave of Samuel Parris; though she is very often referred to as black in modern historical and fictional interpretations of the trials, there is no evidence that she was anything but Indian.
These women were put in prison, and other accusations followed: Dorcas Good, four-year-old daughter of Sarah Good; Rebecca Nurse, a bedridden grandmother of saintly disposition; Abigail Hobbs, Deliverance Hobbs, Martha Cory, Elizabeth and John Proctor. As the number of accusations grew, the jail populations of Salem, Boston, and surrounding areas swelled, and a new problem surfaced: without a legitimate form of government, there was no way to try these women. None of them was tried until late May, when Governor Phips arrived and instituted a Court of Oyer and Terminer (to "hear and determine"). By then, both Sarah Osborn had died in jail without a trial, as had Sarah Good's newborn baby girl, and many others were ill; there were perhaps eighty people in jail awaiting trial.
Over the summer, the Court heard cases approximately once per month, at mid-month. Of the accused, only one was released when the girls recanted their identification of him. All cases which were heard were condemned to death for witchcraft; no one was found innocent. Only those who pled guilty to witchcraft and supplied other names to the court were spared execution. Elizabeth Proctor and at least one other women were given respite "for the belly," because they were pregnant. Though convicted, they would not be hung until they had given birth. A series of four executions over the summer saw nineteen people hung, including a respected minister; a former constable who refused to arrest more accused witches; and at least three people of some wealth. Six of the nineteen were men; most of the rest were impoverished women beyond childbearing age.
Only one execution was not by hanging. Giles Cory, an eighty-year-old farmer from the southeast end of Salem, refused to enter a plea. The law provided for an application of a form of torture called peine fort et dure, in which the victim was slowly crushed by piling stones on him; after three days of excrutiating pain, Cory died without entering a plea. Though his refusal to plea is often explained as a way of preventing his possessions from being confiscated by the state, this is not true; the possessions of convicted witches were often not confiscated, and possessions of persons accused but not convicted were often confiscated before a trial, as in the case of Cory's neighbor John Proctor and the wealthy Englishes of Salem Town. Some historians hypothesize that his personal character, a stubborn and lawsuit-prone old man who knew he was going to be convicted regardless, led to his recalcitrance.
The land suffered along with the people. Crops went untended, cattle uncared for. Often, accused people who had not yet been arrested gathered up their most portable belongings and fled to New York or beyond. Sawmills, their owners missing or distracted, their workers arrested or gawking at the spectacles at the jails or in the meetinghouses, sat idle. Commerce ground to, if not a halt, at least a snail's pace. And there was news of further Indian unrest to the west.
The Ending
The witch trials ended in October 1692, although people already jailed for witchcraft were not all released until the next spring. Officially, the royal appointed governor of Massachusetts, Sir William Phips, ended them after an appeal by Boston-area clergy headed by Increase Mather, "Cases of Conscience," published October 3, 1692. In it, Increase Mather stated "it is better that a hundred guilty witches go free than that one innocent person is hung." Echoes of this phrase can be found in our innocent-until-proven-guilty judicial system of today.
This incident was so profound that it helped end the influence of the Puritan faith on the governing of New England, and led indirectly to the founding principles of the United States of America.
Clergical participants and commentators
- Rev. Cotton Mather
- Rev. Samuel Parris
- Rev. Increase Mather
- Rev. Francis Dane
- Rev. Deodat Lawson
- Rev. Samuel Willard
Presiding officials
Presiding officials, Court of Oyer and Terminer
- Lieutenant Governor William Stoughton, Chief Magistrate
Associate Magistrates
- John Hathorn
- Samuel Sewall
- Thomas Danforth
- Bartholomew Gedney
- John Richards
- Nathaniel Saltonstall
- Peter Sargent
- Stephen Sewall, Clerk
- Wait Still Winthrop
Afflicted
Those who complained of bewitchment:
- Sarah Bibber
- Elizabeth Booth
- Sarah Churchill
- Martha Goodwin
- Elizabeth Hubbard
- Mary Lacey (also an accused witch)
- Mercy Lewis
- Elizabeth "Betty" Parris
- Bethshaa Pope
- Ann Putnam, Jr.
- Susanna Sheldon
- Mercy Short
- Mary Walcott
- Mary Warren (was accused of witchcraft when she recanted and said the girls "did but dissemble")
- Abigail Williams
Accused
This is not a complete list; there were anywhere from 150 to 300 accused recorded, and there may have been many more not imprisoned:
- Capt. John Alden Jr
- Daniel Andrew
- Sarah Bassett
- Edward Bishop
- Sarah Bishop
- Mary Black
- Dudley Bradstreet
- John Bradstreet
- Sarah Buckley
- Richard Carrier
- Candy, a slave from Salem
- Mary Clarke
- Sarah Easty Cloyce
- Sarah Cole
- Giles Cory
- Mary Bassett DeRich
- Ann Dolliver
- Rebecca Eames
- Mary English
- Philip English
- Abigail Faulkner
- Ann Foster
- Dorcas Hoar
- Abigail Hobbs
- Deliverance Hobbs
- Elizabeth Howe
- Mary Ireson
- George Jacobs, Jr.
- Margaret Jacobs
- Elizabeth Johnson
- Mary Lacey (also an afflicted child)
- Sarah Osborne
- Lady Phips, wife of Governor Phips
- Susannah Post
- Elizabeth Bassett Proctor
- Tituba
- Job Tookey
- Hezekiah Usher
- Mary Withridge
Killed
- Bridget Bishop - hanged June 10, 1692
- Rev. George Burroughs - hanged August 19, 1692
- Martha Carrier - hanged August 19, 1692
- Martha Cory - hanged September 22, 1692
- Giles Cory - pressed to death September 19, 1692
- Mary Easty - hanged September 22, 1692
- Sarah Good - hanged June 19, 1692
- Elizabeth Howe - hanged June 19, 1692
- George Jacobs, Sr. - hanged August 19, 1692
- Susannah Martin - hanged June 19, 1692
- Rebecca Easty Nurse - hanged June 19, 1692
- Alice Parker - hanged September 22, 1692
- Mary Parker - hanged September 22, 1692
- John Proctor - hanged August 19, 1692
- Ann Pudeator - hanged September 22, 1692
- Wilmott Redd - hanged September 22, 1692
- Margaret Scott - hanged September 22, 1692
- Samuel Wardwell - hanged September 22, 1692
- Sarah Wildes - hanged June 19, 1692
- John Willard - hanged August 19, 1692
Died in Jail
- Sarah Osburn
- "Dr." Roger Toothaker
- Ann Foster
- Lydia Dustin
- infant daughter of Sarah Good
References
- Boyer, Paul & Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft, MJF Books, 1974.
- Starkey, Marion L., The Devil in Massachusetts, Alfred A. Knopf, 1949.
- Miller, Arthur, The Crucible - a play which implicitly compares McCarthyism to a witch-hunt
- Norton, Mary Beth, In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692, Knopf, 2002
- Roach, Marilynne K.,The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-To-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege, Cooper Square Press, 2002.
External links
- http://annettelamb.com/42explore/salemwitch.htm : An excellent resource on the Salem witch trials & the Crucible.
- http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/ : a documentary archive including original court papers on the trials, maps, interactive maps, biographies, and internal and external links to more resources. This is for the serious researcher only.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Salem witch trials."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A witch can be used to refer to a person who practices witchcraft or magic, and may also refer to a Wiccan, a person who practices the religion Wicca. The word is now applied almost exclusively to women, though in earlier English it applied to men as well. Most people would now call male witches sorcerers, wizards, or warlocks, although Wiccans continue to use the term witch for all who practice witchcraft. Warlock is considered an insult among Wiccans and Neopagans.
The etymological roots could be several: among the canditates are German weihen ("consecrate") as well as the English word "victim" in its original meaning for someone killed in a religious ritual. Thus, a "witch" would signify nothing else but an ancient type of priestess. The Old English words wicca (m.) and its feminine counterpart wicce both mean wizard and gave rise to the adjective "wicked". Wizard, again is thought to be related to the modern term "wise". A cautious interpretation gives us a witch being a woman of (presumably occult) knowledge.
The belief in witches has always existed in nearly every region of the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. In Western culture, the concept of a witch has existed since at least the days of the ancient Greeks, as witches figure prominently in many Greek tragedies.
(A good list of references to witches in ancient history would be good here.)
American and European Witches
During the middle ages and up to about the mid-19th century, witches were universally associated with evil, under the belief that the witch's magical powers were granted by Satan in exchange for the witch's soul. Many outrageous claims were made about the powers of witches, which include the ability to fly, to transform oneself or others into animals or other shapes, and to curse one's enemies.
It was extremely dangerous to be accused of being a "witch", since a common punishment was to be burnt at the stake. Both in North America and in Europe, thousands of people (mostly women), were put to death as witches at various points in history. Some of the worst witchhunts were in Germany, though there are documented cases of torture and murder in the name of stopping witchcraft in nearly every European country.
Most people who were killed as witches were probably hapless midwives, herbalists, widows, spinsters, social outcasts, or victims of revenge seekers. For example, some researchers wholly attribute the Salem witch trials in 1692 to rivalries between opposing political forces in Salem, Massachusetts. See the extensive discussion under witchhunts.
Witches in Modern Culture
In modern days, few people believe in witches that curse enemies, change shapes, or can fly. However, since the last last half of the 1800s Neopagans (mostly Wiccans a subset of Neopagans), have called themselves witches and while most of western culture continues to assign negative connotations to the word, to a Wiccan, it is not a derogatory term, nor does it have anything to do with Satanism. In fact, many Wiccans wish to reclaim the term "witch" and make it positive. The term "white witch" is sometimes used to refer to an exclusively positive meaning of the word, although others reject this term feeling that it is racially insensitive.
In 1968, a group of radical politically active women formed a protest organization in the City of New York called W.I.T.C.H, standing for "Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy From Hell".
Today, witches are iconically associated with Halloween, though Wiccans actually celebrate Samhain. Both dates are the same, and are at least metaphorically similar in meaning. This is not coincidence. Christianity had a basic contempt for the supernatural overtones of the festival. The association between "witches" and Halloween most certainly came from vilification of practitioners of the Celtic celebration of the last harvest.
Witches also appear as villians in many 19th- and 20th-century fairy tales, folk tales and children's stories, such as "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", "Hansel and Gretel", "Sleeping Beauty", and many other stories recorded by the Brothers Grimm. Such folktales typically portray witches as either remarkably ugly hags or remarkably beautiful young women. In the classic story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum the villain is a bad witch but two good witches play important roles as well.
Witches have come into the mainstream in the last decade as well as common pop-culture figures. Teenage and young adult witches have been the focus or appeared in the movies "The Craft", "Practical Magic" and "Blair Witch Project 2" (the sequel to The Blair Witch Project), as well as in the television programs "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Charmed", "Sabrina the Teenage Witch", and episodes of "The X-Files". Such neo-Gothic portrayals bear little relationship to Wicca, or even a Christian view of witches for that matter. In almost all cases witches portrayed in movies and TV shows today are attractive women who have supernatural powers. In the Harry Potter universe, a witch is a female wizard.
See also: Malleus Maleficarum.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Witch."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
| WIT | English | Witch flounder(= fish) | Food & Agriculture, Biology & Biotechnology |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonyms: WitchSynonyms: beldam (n), beldame (n), crone (n), enchantress (n), hag (n), bewitch (v), enchant (v), glamour (v), hex (v), jinx (v). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Oracle | Noun: oracle; prophet, prophesier, seer, soothsayer, augur, fortune teller, crystal gazer, witch, geomancer, aruspex; aruspice, haruspice; haruspex; astrologer, star gazer; Sibyl; Python, Pythoness; Pythia; Pythian oracle, Delphian oracle; Monitor, Sphinx, Tiresias, Cassandra, Sibylline leaves; Zadkiel, Old Moore; sorcerer; interpreter. |
Remedy | Doctor, physician, surgeon; general practitioner, specialist; medical attendant, apothecary, druggist; leech; osteopath, osteopathist; optometrist, ophthalmologist; internist, oncologist, gastroenterologist; epidemiologist, public health specialist; dermatologist; podiatrist; witch doctor, shaman, faith healer, quack, exorcist; Aesculapius, Hippocrates, Galen; accoucheur, accoucheuse, midwife, oculist, aurist; operator; nurse, registered nurse, practical nurse, monthly nurse, sister; nurse's aide, candystriper; dresser; bonesetter; pharmaceutist, pharmacist, druggist, chemist, pharmacopolist. |
Sorcerer | Noun: sorcerer, magician; thaumaturgist, theurgist; conjuror, necromancer, seer, wizard, witch; hoodoo, voodoo; fairy; lamia, hag. |
Ugliness | Eyesore, object, witch, hag, figure, sight, fright; monster; dog, woofer, pig; octopus, specter, scarecrow, harridan, satyr, toad, monkey, baboon, Caliban, Aesop, "monstrum horrendum informe ingens cui lumen ademptum". |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Witch |
| English words defined with "witch": anathemize ♦ bedamn, beshrew ♦ conjure man, conjurer, conjuror, crazily, curse ♦ damn, dementedly, Divining rod ♦ familiar, familiar spirit ♦ genus Hamamelidanthum, genus Hamamelidoxylon, genus Hamamelis, genus Hamamelites ♦ Hag, Hagborn, Hag-ridden, Hamamelidanthum, Hamamelidoxylon, Hamamelis, Hamamelites, Hell-cat, hex ♦ imprecate, insanely ♦ jinx ♦ Kedge ♦ madly, maledict ♦ Night hag ♦ Partridge dove, Phitoness, pythoness ♦ Trim of sails ♦ Unwitch ♦ warlock, White witch, witch hazel, Witched, wych hazel. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "witch": Balai ♦ CALATHEA ALLOUIA, CALATOLA ♦ Florentius ♦ Guyon ♦ MALACHRA, Medicine, African Traditional ♦ Oracle of the Holy Bottle, Bacbuc ♦ PACHIRA AQUATICA, Pamphyle ♦ Rhyming to Death ♦ Santa Maria, Sycorax ♦ The Ridge ♦ Weather, Weeping Brides, WIBLING'S WITCH, Witch of Endor, Witch's Bridle, Wokey. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Wicked Witch of the West was the bad one. (The Blair Witch Project; writing credit: Daniel Myrick; Eduardo Sánchez) An Elf witch of terrible power (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring; writing credit: Frances Walsh) There are ways of telling whether she is a witch. (Monty Python and the Holy Grail; writing credit: Graham Chapman; John Cleese) No but perhaps there is a little bit of witch in you, Katrina (Sleepy Hollow; writing credit: Kevin Yagher) Are you a good witch or a bad witch (The Wizard of Oz; writing credit: Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf.) | |
Lyrics | To summon back the fire witch (THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING; performing artist: King Crimson) Ginger, ginger you're a witch. (Lucifer Sam; performing artist: Pink Floyd) Let the witch doctor, Ice, do the dance to cure (Play that funky music; performing artist: Vanilla Ice) Haters sick of the hits like the witch of the west no body wicked as this (Freakin It; performing artist: Will Smith) | |
Tongue Twisters | If two witches were watching two watches, which witch would watch which watch? (references; author: unknown) Which rich wicked witch wished the wicked wish? (references; author: unknown) Which witch wished which wicked wish? (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Season of the Witch (1973) Love Witch (1973) Virgin Witch (1972) The Teenage Witch Sabrina (1971) We Love You!! Witch Teacher (1971) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
| ||
Periodicals |
| ||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
| ||
High Tech |
| ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Two Lassa Witch Doctors. Credit: CDC. |  | From the era of witch doctor to the era of physician. / WHO p. Credit: National Library of Medicine; photo by Paul Almasy.. |
 | Presented By Van Riper & Co. : Risley's Extract Witch Hazel. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | Stands beside his plane, a General Motors FM-2 "Wildcat" fighter, on board USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73), 1 August 1944. Note pinup art and nickname "Smokey's Lucky Witch" adorning the engine cowling; what appears to be a Composite Squadron Ten (VC-10) insignia below the cockpit windshield; plane numbers ("27") in white on the wing leading edge and and in black under the lip of the cowling; and Ensign's Bennett's flight gear and .45 caliber M1911A1 pistol carried in a shoulder holster. Credit: NAVY. |
 | The little magician & the modern witch of Endor. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Michael knew he must do something at once to break away from the spell of that beautiful witch. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | The witch and the fat school boy / R.E. Sherwood. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | The witch hunters of the Puritan days, or, Same benighted spirit with us yet, or, The "heresy-hunters" of today. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | The Witch House, Salem. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Old Witch House, Salem, Mass. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Children | Uganda | In December police in the eastern town of Mbale arrested Sheikh Hamdan Madanga, a witch doctor, for possession of a human head in his shrine. (references) |
Human Rights | Congo | In late June, in Orientale Province, there were reports of witch hunts, which resulted in the killing of several hundred persons. (references) |
Tanzania | Government officials criticized these practices, and some arrests were made; however, most perpetrators of witch killing or mob justice eluded arrest, and the Government did not take preventive measures during the year. (references) | |
Women | India | On July 23, a 55-year-old woman accused of being a witch was beheaded by a tribal youth in Orissa. (references) |
Ghana | In April a man living in Tongor in the Volta Region chopped off the hands of an elderly aunt, claiming that she was a witch. (references) | |
Ghana | In August 2000, an 80-year-old woman in the Volta region was brought before a community tribunal when a local teacher accused her of being a witch. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Witch" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.17% of the time. "Witch" is used about 602 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 99.17% | 597 | 10,692 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.5% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 0.17% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 0.17% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 602 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "witch": mountain witch ♦ night witch ♦ old witch grass ♦ silver witch ♦ vernal witch hazel ♦ Virginian witch hazel ♦ water witch ♦ white witch ♦ witch alder ♦ witch balls ♦ witch broom ♦ witch doctor ♦ witch elm ♦ witch flounder ♦ witch grass ♦ witch hazel ♦ witch hunt ♦ witch meal. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "witch": witch-ball, witch-broth, witch-burning, witch-burnings, witch-craze, witch-cursed, witch-delusions, witch-doctor, witch-doctored, witch-doctor-like, witch-doctors, Witch-elm, witch-evil-woman, witch-finder, witch-hair, witch-hare, Witch-hazel, witch-hazel family, witch-herbs, witch-hunt, Witch-hunter, witch-hunters, witch-hunting, witch-hunts, witch-in-the-cupboard, Witch-king, witch-like, witch-lore, witch-marks, witch-meal, witch-murderer, witch-satanist, witch-sign, Witch-tree, witch-trial, witch-women. | |
Ending with "witch": ex-witch, man-witch, woman-as-witch. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
witch craft | 4,460 | witch of salem | 135 |
witch | 3,145 | teen witch | 129 |
salem witch trial | 901 | witch craft store | 127 |
witch craft spells | 582 | witch hunter robin | 112 |
sabrina the teenage witch | 554 | scarlet witch | 94 |
blair witch | 480 | voice witch | 83 |
blair witch project | 354 | the witch of blackbird pond | 77 |
witch craft supply | 293 | white witch | 71 |
witch spells | 268 | kitchen witch | 70 |
the lion the witch the wardrobe | 265 | witch craft symbol | 66 |
witch craft spell | 249 | witch costume | 65 |
ditch witch | 238 | witch hunt | 64 |
witch hazel | 217 | wicked witch of the west | 63 |
wicca and witch craft | 183 | witch trial | 63 |
craft free spells witch | 167 | witch doctor | 62 |
bell witch | 155 | witch of eastwick | 60 |
the worst witch | 154 | traditional witch craft | 60 |
the seven witch | 154 | become a witch | 58 |
hogwarts school of witch craft wizardry | 140 | salem witch craft trial | 58 |
picture of a witch | 136 | wicked witch | 58 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "witch"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | heks. (various references) | |
Albanian | shtrigë (Beldam, beldame, cummer, gorgon, hag, hex, lamia, medicaster, medicine man, necromancer, night-hag, termagant), magjistare (enchantress, hex, sorceress). (various references) | |
Arabic | فتن (bewitch, captivate, charm, enchant, enthral, enthrall, enthralling, entrance, fascinate, glamor, glamour, infatuate, love, magnetize, mesmerize, ravish, rejoice, seduce, smite, spellbind, tempt, thrill), سحر (attractiveness, bedevil, bewitch, bewitchment, catch, charm, conjure, diablerie, enamor, enamour, enchantment, fascinate, fascination, glamor, glamour, incantation, infatuation, loveliness, magic, magnetize, matinee, mesmerize, necromancy, overlook, pleasantness, prestige, quaintness, ravishment, relish, smite, sorcery, spell, spellbind, temptation, weirdness, witchcraft, witchery, wiz, wizardry, zest), عجوز قبيحة, الفاتنة (belle), الساحرة (enchantress, sorceress, wise woman), العرافة (divination). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | чаровница (enchantress), чародейка (charmer, Circe, enchantress), грозна стара жена, вълшебница, вещица (hag, hellcat, hex, pythoness), омагьосвам (bedevil, bewitch, charm, enchant, glamor, glamour, hoodoo, spellbind, voodoo). (various references) | |
Chinese | 巫婆 . (various references) | |
Czech | oèarovat (bewitch, enchant, spellbind), èarodìjnice (crone, hag). (various references) | |
Danish | skærising (witch flounder), heks. (various references) | |
Dutch | toverheks, tovenares, kol (blaze), heks. (various references) | |
Esperanto | sorĉistino. (various references) | |
Farsi | فریبنده (Attractive, Captious, Deceptive, Glamorous, Sophisticate, Tempter), پیره زن , مجذوب کردن (Engage), سحرکردن (Enchant), ساحره (Hag, Hellcat), زن جادوگر, افسون کردن (Bewitch, Enchant, Voodoo). (various references) | |
Finnish | velho (magician, sorcerer, sorceress, wizard), noita-akka, mustaeväkampela (witch flounder). (various references) | |
French | sorcière. (various references) | |
Frisian | tsjoenster, heks. (various references) | |
German | Hexe (bitch, hag, old crone, sibyl). (various references) | |
Greek | μάγισσα (belch, sorceress). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מכשפ" (hag, harridan, sorceress), כשפ ית, בעלת כשפים. (various references) | |
Hungarian | boszorkány (beldam, hag, hell-cat, hex, sorceress, virago, vixen). (various references) | |
Indonesian | tukang sihir wanita, tukang sihir (magician, wizard). (various references) | |
Italian | strega (hag, harridan, hex, sorceress), passera lingua di cane (witch flounder), passera (European flounder, European plaice, flounder, fluke, plaice, witch flounder), maga (enchantress, sorceress), fattucchiera (hag, wizard), ammaliatrice (charmer). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | "女 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | おにばば (hag, penurious or spiteful old woman), きじょ (demoness, lady, mechanism, ogress, she-devil, you), まほうつかい (magician, sorcerer, wizard), まじょ. (various references) | |
Korean | 마녀. (various references) | |
Manx | ben obbee. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | itchway.(various references) | |
Portuguese | feiticeira (circe, enchantress, hag, sorceress), bruxa (beldam, hag, harridan, hex, sorceress). (various references) | |
Romanian | vrãjitoare (enchantress, hag, hell-cat, lamia, magic), hoanghinã (hag), fermecãtoare, farmazoanã. (various references) | |
Russian | ведьма (hag, harridan, hellcat, hell-cat, hex, jade, night-hag, nightmare). (various references) | |
Scottish | buitseach (a witch). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | veštica (hag, sorceress). (various references) | |
Spanish | bruja (Beldam, bitch, crone, hag, harridan, hex, night-hag, Randy, sorceress, wizard). (various references) | |
Swedish | häxa (beldame, hag, night-hag, sorceress, whitch), trollkvinna (enchantress, sorceress). (various references) | |
Turkish | sihirbaz (charmer, conjurer, conjuror, illusionist, mage, magician, sorcerer, Warlock, wise man, wizard), cadi, cadı (bitch, ghoul, gorgon, hag, hellcat, old cat, shrewish), büyüleyici güzel, büyülemek (allure, bedazzle, beguile, bewitch, captivate, cast a spell on, catch up, charm, conjure, daze, dazzle, enamor, enamour, enchant, enthral, enthrall, entrance, fascinate, glamor, glamorize, glamour, hypnotize, inthral, spell, spellbind, voodoo), büyücü kadın (enchantress, Sibyl, sorceress, wise woman), büyücü (charmer, enchanter, magician, necromancer, necromantic, sorcerer, Warlock, wise man, wizard), büyü yapmak (bewitch, glamorize, hex, hoodoo, jinx, practise sorcery, put a jinx on, voodoo), afsuncu (conjurer, conjuror, sorcerer). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | чародійка (charmer), чаклунка (Beldam, enchantress, lamia), шльондра (besom, jade, whore), відьма (bat, bear-cat, hag, nightmare), ворожка (fortune teller, soothsayer), наврочити (bedevil, overlook), знахарка (charlatan), зачарувати (jinx), буревісник (petrel, pintado, puffin), повія (baggage, bawd, call girl, cat, chippy, harlot, jilt, quean, streetwalker, strumpet, trollop, unfortunate, wagtail, whore). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | mụ phù thuỷ mụ gi xấu xí người đ n b quyến rũ. (various references) | |
Welsh | gwrach (hag), gwiddon (mites), dewines (sorceress). (various references) | |
Yucatec | xwaay. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Sumerian | 3100 BCE-2500 BCE | um-ma. (various references) |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | Cynoglossus vulgaris, Glyptocephalus cynoglossus, Glyptocephalus cynoglossus (Linnaeus), lamia, lamiae, maga, maleficis, Pleuronectes cynoglossus, saga, sagis. (various references) |
| Avestan | 200-600 | pairikanãmca. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Language | Date | Source | Exodus Chapter 22, Verse 18 |
| Greek (transliterated) | 250 BC | Septuagint | Pan koimwmenon meta kthnouV qanatw apokteneite autouV |
| Latin | 405 | Vulgate | Maleficos non patieris vivere |
| Middle English | 1395 | Wyclif | Clepers of deuels thow shalt not suffre to lyue. |
| Renaissance English | 1526 | Tyndale | Thou shalt not suffre a witch to lyue, |
| Jacobean English | 1611 | King James | Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. |
| Victorian English | 1833 | Webster | Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. |
| Basic English | 1964 | Ogden | Any woman using unnatural powers or secret arts is to be put to death. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Exodus Chapter 22, Verse 18 |
| Cebuano | Sa malamaton nga babaye dili ka magtugot nga mabuhi. |
| Croatian | Tko bi god sa živinom legao, treba ga kazniti smræu. |
| Danish | En Troldkvinde må du ikke lade leve. |
| Dutch | De toveres zult gij niet laten leven. |
| Finnish | Velhonaisen älä salli elää. |
| French | Tu ne laisseras point vivre la magicienne. |
| German | Die Zauberinnen sollst du nicht leben lassen. |
| Haitian Creole | Se pou nou touye tout fanm k'ap fè maji. |
| Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari | Setiap perempuan yang melakukan sihir harus dibunuh. |
| Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama | Jangan kamu hidupi seorang petenung. |
| Italian | Chiunque si abbrutisce con una bestia sia messo a morte. |
| Maori | Kei tukua e koe te wahine makutu kia ora. |
| Norwegian | En trollkvinne skal du ikke la leve |
| Portuguese | Não permitirás que viva uma feiticeira. |
| Rumanian | Pe vrqjitoare sq n`o lawi sq trqiascq. |
| Russian | чПТПЦЕЙ ОЕ ПУФБЧМСК Ч ЦЙЧЩИ. |
| Spanish | "No dejarás que vivan las brujas. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "witch": witchcraft, witchcrafts, witched, witcheries, witchery, witches, witchgrass, witchgrasses, witchier, witchiest, witching, witchings, witchlike, witchweed, witchweeds, witchy. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "witch": bewitch, microswitch, switch, twitch. (additional references) | |
Words containing "witch": bewitched, bewitcheries, bewitchery, bewitches, bewitching, bewitchingly, bewitchment, bewitchments, dowitcher, dowitchers, microswitches, switchable, switchback, switchbacked, switchbacking, switchbacks, switchblade, switchblades, switchboard, switchboards, switched, switcher, switcheroo, switcheroos, switchers, switches, switchgrass, switchgrasses, switching, switchman, switchmen, switchyard, switchyards, twitched, twitcher, twitchers, twitches, twitchier, twitchiest, twitchily, twitching, twitchy. (additional references) | |
| |
"Witch" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: gitch, titch, wach, Watcha, wazch, weich, wetch, wicu, wilch, witah, witdh, witth, Woch, worch, wutch, zitch. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "witch" (pronounced wi"kh) |
| 3 | w i" kh | bewitch, switch, twitch, which, wich. |
| 2 | -i" kh | bitch, ditch, enrich, Fitch, glitch, hitch, ich, itch, kitsch, lich, niche, pitch, rich, snitch, Stich, stitch, unhitch. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-h-i-t-w" | |
-1 letter: chit, itch, whit, wich, with. | |
-2 letters: chi, hic, hit, ich, tic, wit. | |
-3 letters: hi, it, ti. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-h-i-t-w" | |
+1 letter: switch, twitch, witchy. | |
+2 letters: bewitch, fitchew, twitchy, witched, witches. | |
+3 letters: chewiest, chowtime, fitchews, midwatch, switched, switcher, switches, twitched, twitcher, twitches, watching, whinchat, whitecap, whitrack, witchery, witchier, witching. | |
+4 letters: bewitched, bewitches, chowtimes, dowitcher, switchers, switching, switchman, switchmen, thwacking, twitchers, twitchier, twitchily, twitching, wauchting, whackiest, whinchats, whipstock, whitecaps, whiteface, whitracks, wholistic, witchiest, witchings, witchlike, witchweed. | |
+5 letters: bewitchery, bewitching, dowitchers, midwatches, pitchwoman, pitchwomen, stitchwort, switchable, switchback, switcheroo, switchyard, twitchiest, watchcries, whipstitch, whipstocks, whitefaces, witchcraft, witcheries, witchgrass, witchweeds, wristwatch. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Bible Trace 15. Abbreviations 16. Acronyms | 17. Derivations 18. Rhymes 19. Anagrams 20. Bibliography |
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