wicca

wicca

1. Wicca (neo-pagan religion)
2. Wiccan (follower of this religion)

• (religion): wicca-uskonto, wiccalaisuus
• (follower): wiccalainen

• wiccalainen
• wiccalaisuus

wicca f (invariable)

1. Wicca

• wiccano

• ƿiċċa

From Proto-Germanic *wikkô (“necromancer, sorcerer”).

Further etymology uncertain; apparently from Proto-Indo-European *weik- (“separate, divide”), conjectured to be because of early Germanic divinatory practices to do with casting lots.

The exact etymology is problematic. R. Lühr (Expressivität und Lautgesetz im Germanischen, Heidelberg (1988), p. 354) connects wigol "prophetic, mantic", wīglian "to practice divination" (Middle Low German wichelen (“bewitch”) and suggests Proto-Germanic *wigōn, via Kluge's law becoming *wikkōn. The basic form would then be the feminine, wicce /ˈwɪt͡ʃe/, from *wikkæ, from *wikkōn with palatalization due to the preceding i and the following *æ, from *ōn. 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, from *wikkija (OED, s.v. witch). Lühr conversely favours derivation of this verb from the noun. The Proto-Indo-European root from which these words are derived is *weik- (“to separate, to divide”), probably via early Germanic divinatory practices involving Cleromancy (casting lots).

• IPA^(key): /ˈwit.t͡ʃːɑ/

wiċċa m

1. wizard, sorcerer, magician, druid, necromancer
   • c. 890, Ælfred, Domboc, Prologue

     Ða fæmnan þe gewuniað onfon gealdorcræftigan ⁊ scinlæcan ⁊ wiccan, ne læt þu ða libban.

     Women who are accustomed to receiving enchanters and sorceresses and witches, do not let them live.

• Middle English: wicche; wikke, wikked
  • English: witch; Wicca (borrowing), wicked
  • Scots: wich; wicked, wicket