witch

Meaning

1. A person who practices witchcraft.
2. A person who practices witchcraft.
3. An ugly or unpleasant woman.
4. One who exercises more-than-common power of attraction; a charming or bewitching person.
5. One given to mischief, especially a woman or child.
6. A certain curve of the third order, described by Maria Agnesi under the name versiera.
7. The storm petrel.
8. Any of a number of flatfish:
9. Any of a number of flatfish:
10. Any of a number of flatfish:
11. The Indomalayan butterfly Araotes lapithis, of the family Lycaenidae.

evil spirit

witch flounder

ugly woman

wise woman

gray sole

beldame

supernatural power

do magic

cummer

night-hag

pishogue

craig fluke

pale flounder

torbay sole

grey flounder

pole flounder

female magician

grey-sole

whitch

Craig fluke

witch sole

hell-cat

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/wɪt͡ʃ/

The noun is from Middle English wicche, from Old English wiċċe (“witch (female), sorceress”) and wiċċa (“witch (male), sorcerer, warlock”), deverbative from wiċċian (“to practice sorcery”), from Proto-Germanic *wikkōną (compare West Frisian wikje, wikke (“to foretell, warn”), German Low German wicken (“to soothsay”), Dutch wikken, wichelen (“to dowse, divine”)), from Proto-Indo-European *wik-néh₂-, derivation of *weyk- (“to consecrate; separate”); akin to Latin victima (“sacrificial victim”), Lithuanian viẽkas (“life-force”), Sanskrit विनक्ति (vinákti, “to set apart, separate out”). Possibly related to wicked; see that entry for more. The verb is from the noun.