Witch (etymology) - Germanic Etymology

Germanic Etymology

The Old English verb wiccian has a cognate in Middle Low German wicken (attested from the 13th century, besides wichelen "to bewitch"). The further etymology of this word is problematic. It has no clear cognates in Germanic outside of English and Low German, and there are numerous possibilities for the Indo-European root from which it may have been derived.

• The OED states that the noun is "apparently" deverbal (derived from wiccian), but for the verb merely states that it is "of obscure origin".
• Grimm, Deutsches Wörterbuch connects the "Ingvaeonic word" *wikkōn with Gothic weihs "sacred" (Proto-Indo European (PIE) *weik- "to separate, to divide", probably via early Germanic practices of cleromancy such as those reported by Tacitus,
• Grimm also considers *weik- "to curve, bend" (which became wicken "hop, dance") and *weg'h- "to move" (in a sense of "to make mysterious gestures").
• R. Lühr connects wigol "prophetic, mantic", wīglian "to practice divination" (Middle Low German wichelen "bewitch", wicker "soothsayer") and suggests Proto-Germanic *wigōn, geminated (c.f. Verschärfung) to *wikkōn. The basic form would then be the feminine, wicce < *wikkæˈ' < *wikkōn with palatalization due to the preceding i and the following *æ < *ōn in early Ingvaeonic. The palatal -cc- /t͡ʃ/ in wicca would then be analogous to the feminine.
  • An alternative possibility is to derive the palatal /t͡ʃ/ directly from the verb wiccian < *wikkija. Lühr conversely favours derivation of this verb from the noun.
• The American Heritage Dictionary connects PIE *weg'- "rouse" (English wake), and offers the Proto-Germanic reconstruction *wikkjaz "one who wakes the dead".

Other suggestions for the underlying root are untenable or widely rejected:

• Grimm reject a connection with *wek- "speak", suggested by P. Lessiak (ZfDA 53, 1912).
• Walter William Skeat derived the word from PIE *weid-, Old English wita "wise man, wizard" and witan "to know", considering it a corruption of an earlier *witga. No Old English spelling with -t- is known, and this etymology is not accepted today.
• Robert Graves in his 1948 The White Goddess, in discussing the willow which was sacred to the Greek goddess Hecate, connects the word to a root *wei- which connotes bending or pliance, by saying: "Its connection with witches is so strong in Northern Europe, that the words 'witch' and 'wicked' are derived from the same ancient word for willow, which also yields 'wicker'." This confounds English and Scandinavian evidence, since the weak root in English has no connection with willows, and Old Norse has no word for "witch" cognate to the English.