Wizards, witches, hags and warlocks- Language.

[rcraigharman at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 18833

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Ellen & John Anglin" <anglinsbees at y...> 
wrote:
> Um, No holy war here, 
> 
> But you really need to do better research before delving into 
> Linguistics- and I do not count any of the New age Dreck published
> By Llewelyn Publishing as good research.
> 
> The definaitions mentioned above are common misconceptions among 
> those who practise new age religions.  Unfortunately, most of the 
> books published for modern "Wiccans" are of questionable
> scholarship.  Very Questionable scholarship. (I can point out so
> many obvious errors in many popular books- but I'm not about to go
> into that here-It is not the proper place.)

Agreed, on both points.

For those who prefer a strictly etymological approach, independent
of definition wrangling, here's the origins in English per m-w.com:

hag: Middle English hagge demon, old woman

Webster's Revised carries this further, relating it to AS
"haegtesse" = "witch"; OHG "hagazussa".  These are suggested to
be related to "hex" (Modern German for "witch" is "Hexe"), but in
turn it's further related back to the roots of "hedge" and "haw",
where the notion of "hedge" or "thicket" is tied in to "woodlands".
The concept being that the edge of a property was the area that had
not been deforested.  Later, "hedge" would be restricted to the
greenery used to border a property.  Thus, "hagazussa" is suggested
to have meant a "woman of the forest" and transitively, a "wild or
crazed woman".


warlock: Middle English warloghe, from Old English w[AE]rloga one
that breaks faith, the Devil, from w[AE]r faith, troth + -loga (from
lEogan to lie); akin to Old English w[AE]r true 


wizard: Middle English wysard, from wis, wys wise

The "-ard" of wizard is from the same root as the "-ard", "-art" of
"drunkard", "braggart", "coward", "sluggard", etc. which is cognate
to the English word "hard".  The suffix is used to express the
concept of being excessively or habitually whatever quality is
expressed in the first root.


Of all the etymologies, "witch" is the most complicated.

Merriam-Webster sees kinship with an Old German root for "holy":

witch: Middle English wicche, from Old English wicca, masculine,
wizard & wicce, feminine, witch; akin to Middle High German wicken
to bewitch, Old English wigle divination, and perhaps to Old High
German wIh holy -- more at VICTIM

A contrasting etymology for witch given by the American Heritage
Dictionary, extrapolates the root wicca/wicce to the presumed
suffixed "*weg" + "*yo" in the form of a hypothesized Germanic root
word "*wikkjaz" = "necromancer", i.e. someone who wakes the dead.
(Cf. English, "to wake"; Latin, "vigil"; German, "wecken", etc.)

And Webster's Revised leads back to a number of Germanic words with
meanings along the lines of "to hex", "to bewitch", except the Low 
German "wikken" = "to predict", which would relate it squarely back
to the sight root (IE "*weid-") found in "wizard" and numerous
other words.

The lack of clarity in this etymology comes largely from the age
of the word and the fact that two distinct IE roots *weid- (to
see), *weg- (to be strong, lively), and an OHG root *wIh- (holy)
are all possible sources.


I think that the etymologies put an interesting spin on their current
connotations, with "wisdom" being a positive attribute, and "oath-
breaking", nonconformist behavior (living away from society in the
forest), and "visions" and/or even "necromancy" being seen as things
to fear and avoid....

....Craig