bewitch

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English biwicchen, also biwucchen,^[2][3][4] formed from Middle English bi- + wicchen,^[4][5][6] which corresponds to English be- and witch.^[7][8] The prefix has here the sense "thoroughly".^[9] The Middle English verb is from Old English wiccian (“to practise witchcraft”),^{[3][8][6][10]} and the American Heritage Dictionary derives that from wicce (“witch”) or wicca (“sorcerer”), and refers them to the root Proto-Indo-European *weg-;^[4] Etymonline takes the nouns from the verb, and notes that the OED calls the origin uncertain.^[3] The Middle English Dictionary derives biwicchen from the noun wicche instead.^[2] Etymonline adds that an Old English *bewiccian may well have existed but is not attested.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To cast a spell on someone or something: about 1225, in the Worcester glosses, where it renders Old English bedydrian.^[7][2] Etymonline dates it to about 1200, and Dictionary.com to 1175–1225.^[3][11] Laȝamon's Brut says of a town þa burh wes biwucched, in a manuscript of about 1275.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word was literal at first, and it implied harm:^[3] the OED notes that the spell usually works malevolently.^[7] The figurative sense, to fascinate or charm as if by magic, is recorded from Tyndale's Bible of 1526, at Galatians 3:1.^[7][3] Johnson (1755) still put the harmful sense first, "to injure by witchcraft", with quotations from Shakespeare and Dryden, and gave "to charm" second.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – to cast a spell on someone or something.^[7][2]
• 1526 – to captivate or fascinate, as if by magic.^[7][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cast a spell on someone or something; to affect by witchcraft, usually to harm: The villagers believed the old woman had bewitched their cattle.^[13][5][7]
2. To fascinate or enchant; to attract strongly, as if by magic: The harbour town bewitched every painter who came to it.^[13][7]

Word family

• bewitcher
• bewitchery
• bewitchingly
• bewitchingness
• bewitchment
• bewitching

Related words

• witch

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins