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wicca
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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See also: Wicca
Finnish
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
wicca
Declension
Synonyms
- (religion): wicca-uskonto, wiccalaisuus
- (follower): wiccalainen
Derived terms
- wiccalainen
- wicca-liike
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Italian
Noun
wicca f (invariable)
Related terms
Old English
Etymology
From Proto-West Germanic *wikkō (“necromancer, sorcerer”).
Further etymology uncertain; apparently from Proto-Indo-European *weyk- (“separate, divide”), conjectured to be because of early Germanic divinatory practices to do with casting lots (cleromancy).
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.
Pronunciation
Noun
wiċċa m
- 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.
- c. 890, Ælfred, Domboc, Prologue
Declension
Weak:
Derived terms
- wiċċe f
Descendants
Polish
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from English Wicca.
Pronunciation
Noun
wicca f (indeclinable)
- Wicca (neopagan religion that was first popularized by books written in 1949, 1954, and 1959 by Englishman Gerald Gardner, involving the worship of a horned male god and a moon goddess, the observance of eight Sabbats, and the performance of various rituals)
Further reading
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