Old English
Old English also had hægtesse "witch, fury", whence Modern English hag, of uncertain origin, but cognate to German Hexe, from an Old High German haga-zussa, Common Germanic *haga-tusjon- (OED), perhaps from a *tesvian "to mar, damage", meaning "field-damager" (the suggestion of Grimm). The element hag- originally means "fence, wooden enclosure", and hence also "enclosed fields, cultivated land".
Other Old English synonyms of wicca and wicce include gealdricge, scinlæce, hellrúne.
The Old English plural form for both the masculine and feminine nouns was wiccan (= "witches") and wiccecræft was "witchcraft". The earliest recorded use of the word is in the Laws of Ælfred which date to circa 890:
- Tha faemnan, the gewuniath onfon gealdorcraeftigan and scinlaecan and wiccan, ne laet thu tha libban.
- Women who are accustomed to receiving enchanters and sorceresses and witches, do not let them live!
In the homilies of the Old English grammarian Ælfric, dating to the late tenth century we find:
- Ne sceal se cristena befrinan tha fulan wiccan be his gesundfulnysse.
- A Christian should not consult foul witches concerning his prosperity.
In both these examples wiccan is the plural noun, not an adjective. The adjective fulan (foul) can mean "physically unclean" as well as "morally or spiritually unclean" or "wicked".
In Old English glossaries the words wicce and wicca are used to gloss such Latin terms as hariolus, conjector, and pythonyssa, all of which mean "diviner", "soothsayer", which suggests a possible role of fortune-teller for the witch in Anglo-Saxon times.
The word wicca is associated with animistic healing rites in Halitgar's Latin Penitential where it is stated that
- Some men are so blind that they bring their offering to earth-fast stone and also to trees and to wellsprings, as the witches teach, and are unwilling to understand how stupidly they do or how that dead stone or that dumb tree might help them or give forth health when they themselves are never able to stir from their place.
The phrase swa wiccan tæcaþ ("as the witches teach") seems to be an addition to Halitgar's original, added by an eleventh century Old English translator.
Read more about this topic: Witch (etymology)
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