wicca

Forms

wiċċa m (weak; genitive singular wiċċan, nominative plural wiċċan)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *wikkō (“necromancer, sorcerer”).^[1] Köbler sets up a Proto-Germanic *wikkō “magician” and connects it with Old Frisian and Middle Low German words for sorcery, such as Middle Low German wîchelîe.^[2] Holthausen gives no sure connection and compares the words for divination, such as wīġlere.^[3]

The further origin is uncertain.^[1] Köbler traces it to Proto-Indo-European *weyk- (“to separate, consecrate”) (Pokorny 1128).^[4] Wiktionary reports Lühr's view that it comes from *wigōn by Kluge's law, beside wīġlian (“to practise divination”) and Middle Low German wichelen (“to bewitch”), with the palatal ⟨cc⟩ taken over from the feminine; the OED would rather take the palatal from the verb wiċċian.^[1] Etymonline cites a proposal of Watkins deriving it from a root meaning “be lively”, and the older comparison with Gothic 𐍅𐌴𐌹𐌷𐍃 (weihs, “holy”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in a dated manuscript is in Ælfric's Lives of Saints (Cotton Julius E. vii, early eleventh century), in the life of Eugenia: Hi axoden æt wyccum and æt wisum dryum, eac æt heora leasum godum be þære godes þinene, “they asked wizards and wise sorcerers, and their false gods too, about God's handmaid”.^[6][7][8] Most other forms of the word are shared with the feminine wiċċe.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller define it as a wizard, soothsayer or magician; it glosses Latin ariolus “soothsayer” and pytho “one possessed by a spirit of divination”, and it stands beside drýmen “sorcerers” and wígeleras “diviners” in Ælfric's and Wulfstan's homilies and in the laws, which ban such people from the land.^[8] Bosworth and Toller note that some of the passages may belong to the feminine.^[8]

In Middle English the word wicche was used of practitioners of either sex, and the word became English witch.^[5][1] The form wicca was taken up again in the twentieth century as the name of a modern religion.^[5]

Timeline

• s. xi in. – æt wyccum “from wizards” in Ælfric's Lives of Saints (Cotton Julius E. vii).^[6][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. a wizard, sorcerer, magician.^[8][9]
2. a soothsayer, diviner.^[8][4]

Descendants

• Middle English wicche (→ English witch; English Wicca; English wicked)^[1]

Related words

• wiċċe
• wiċċian
• wīġlere

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
3. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 392
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. wicca
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 282
7. ^ a b c Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
8. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 1213
9. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 227