magus

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin magus (“member of the Persian priestly class; priest, wise man”),^[2][3] from Ancient Greek μάγος (mágos),^[2][3][4] a word for the Persian learned and priestly class,^[3] from Old Persian maguš (“magician”).^[2][4][5][6] Ancient historians said it was originally the name of a Median tribe,^[3][7] and Wiktionary takes the noun from the Greek name for a Magian, of an indeterminate Old Iranian origin.^[1] Etymonline calls Proto-Indo-European *magh- (“to be able, have power”) a possible further source,^[3] and the American Heritage Dictionary refers the word to the same root.^[4] The word magic comes from the same Greek noun,^[3][8] and mage is its doublet.^[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

One of the three wise men from the East who brought gifts to the infant Jesus, in the plural Magi: the OED's first record is in the Ormulum, about 1175,^[2] which Barnhart dates to about 1200, glossing it as men skilled in magic and astrology.^[7] Merriam-Webster dates the word to the 13th century, Collins and Hoad to the 14th, and Etymonline dates the singular to the late 14th century.^[8][9][5][3] Dictionary.com gives 1615–25.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The first English use, for the Magi of the Gospel, follows the Vulgate and Christian writers.^[2] Barnhart notes that a tradition going back to the second century made them kings,^[7] and in Middle English the plural was also made into mages, before 1350.^[7] Chaucer's magus is the name of Simon Magus, the sorcerer of Acts 8.^[11][12] The historical sense, a member of the ancient Persian priestly caste that became influential in Zoroastrianism, appears only in 1555,^[2][5] together with a broader one, a person skilled in eastern magic and astrology.^[2][13] From 1700 the word could be used of anyone thought to have great wisdom or powers like a magician's.^[2] In 1822 a history of the Irish church applied it to the pagan sorcerers said to have opposed St Patrick and St Columba, a use the OED thinks probably influenced by Simon's epithet.^[2] Weekley remarks that the Persian descendant of the word came to mean a taverner, the Zoroastrian priest having become an object of contempt under the Arabs.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – plural, the wise men from the East who visited the infant Jesus.^[2]
• before 1350 – the plural form mages.^[7]
• 1555 – a member of the ancient Persian priestly caste; a person skilled in eastern magic and astrology.^[2]
• 1700 – a person with great wisdom or powers likened to a magician's.^[2]
• 1822 – a pagan sorcerer opposing the missions of St Patrick and St Columba.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A member of a hereditary priestly class among the ancient Medes and Persians; a Zoroastrian priest.; plural magi.^[8][9][13]
2. Usually capitalized, and usually plural: one of the wise men from the East who paid homage to the infant Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew.^[8][13][2]
3. An expert in the occult arts; a magician or sorcerer, especially of ancient times.^[8][9][13]
4. A person regarded as having great wisdom or nearly magical powers.^[2]

Word family

• magian

Related words

• Magi
• magic
• mage
• magician

Usage notes

The plural is magi,^[9][8][13] and usage guides from the later 20th century note its occasional use as a singular.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press