Came across this interesting Reddit post on the difference between the various terms that have come to be associated with the magic user classes:
https://old.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/9lywhx/would_the_different_words_for_magic_user_ie/e7dpf0l/
Like many things involving language and academic, I am sure there is plenty of room for nitpicks, but it gives a nice extra bit of depth to the terms beyond their current game mechanic uses.
Pasted below for posterity.
These terms have had various meanings throughout their history, and it is helpful to look at their origins.
Wizard originally meant literally "wise one", or sage, first attested in the early 1400:s. It acquires the meaning of "magician" in the mid-16th century, according to etymonline. Therefore it is not really relevant to the medieval period.
Sorcery enters English via Old French around 1300, ultimately deriving from a latin term for casting lots (= telling one's fortune). It appears to have had roughly the same broad meaning today, ranging from anything marvelous to literal magic.
Warlock is an interesting one. It derives from Old English Waerloga, from "one who breaks an oath". One can see the very deep roots of the concept involved in the use of the word "Waer", which is (probably, this is a little controversial) related to the name of the Indo-Iranian deity Varuna, the god of the oath. The oath was an important aspect of maintaining social order in Anglo-Saxon society, and thus, to call someone an oathbreaker was a very severe accusation indeed. Around 1000, per Oxford Etymological Dictionary, it was used as a euphemism for the Devil. The meaning "one in league with the devil" follows from this around 1300. The meaning "male witch", on the other hand, is only attested in the 16th century beginning in Scots.
Magician has a long history; the ultimate root is the name of an Iranian tribe (maybe caste) with clerical associations, the Magu (by extension, the word came to apply to a class of clerics in Zoroastrianism - Moabad derives from it, for example). In Classical works, the Magu became associated with the famous astrology of Babylon, and the legendary wisdom of "Pseudo-Zoroaster", in Hellenistic times supposed to be the inventor of magic (see e.g. Plutarch, Isis and Osiris). While the word has a memorable positive association in the Magi who visit Jesus (note the astrology connection again), it would soon become the epithet of a stock villain in early Christian writings, Simon Magus (or Simon the Sorcerer, if you will). However, when it enters English via Old French in the late 14th century, it seems to have a more neutral connotation - as neutral as magic-use can be in such a society, at any rate.
Witch, finally, from Old English Wicce (a soothsaying woman, later a woman in league with the devil) should be familiar - accusing a woman of being a witch was to accuse her of engaging in a covenant with Satan, evidenced with allegations of dark rituals, stealing communion, etc. This is presumably familiar enough, though it should be noted that many of the famous witch hunts really date to the Early Modern period, post-reformation.
So, the most important difference would seem to have been how strong the association to being in league with the devil was, varying with term, time and place. This is all complicated if we try to account for the range of languages involved, &c. Of course in Christian orthodoxy, all magic was the result of being in league with the devil, but such orthodoxy always competed with other (folkloric, literary, etc) ideas of the supernatural in the popular imagination.
No comments:
Post a Comment