“Wizard” is from an old word that just meant “wise man,” but it gradually came to mean a magician, and usually one who had obtained his magical skills through study.
“Witch” is from an Anglo-Saxon word that meant roughly “pagan,” and was often applied to old women who had learned various useful tricks — herbal remedies, ways to deal with injured livestock, and so on — just by living long enough to pick them up and remember them. This was seen as magic, and the medieval church didn’t approve of anyone doing magic other than priests, so witches got a lot of grief and were accused of consorting with demons to gain their powers. The fact that the Bible says “thou shalt not suffer a witch to live…”
Well, actually, it doesn’t say that; the Hebrew word that got translated as “witch” really meant something more like “poisoner,” but the translators couldn’t agree on an exact English equivalent and went with “witch,” much to the detriment of lots of harmless old women trying to get by selling herbal potions.
Anyway, the result is that “witch” usually means someone who knows nature magic, while a wizard is someone who knows scholarly magic. Witches were often accused of consorting with demons, but medieval wizards were the ones who really did try to summon and command demons. (We have some of their surviving books on the subject, where most witches appear to have been illiterate.)
The word wizard is from Middle English, a combination of wise and –ard, in the sense of a philosopher or sage. In the middle of the 16th century the word became a term for someone practicing witchcraft, when there was little difference between magic and wisdom. In the early 17th century it evolved to refer to anyone with impressive knowledge or wisdom in some area. We now talk about computer programming wizards, a math whiz (derived from wizard), and wizardly acts.
Wizards have been running around fantasy fiction for generations. From Ursula Le Guin’s famed novel The Wizard of Earthsea to Gandalf and his brethren in The Lord of the Rings, sagely men with beards, hats, and staffs or wands are well known, loved or feared or both, and a part of the modern canon. They all ultimately seem to stem from Merlin, the wizard/sorcerer of the Arthurian tales, though Merlin appears and behaves differently depending on which version of the tales you read or see.
Witches
Witch comes from Old English wicca (for a man) or wicce (for a woman), both meaning magic user. This makes the modern use of Wicca a bit peculiar, given that women apply it to themselves to refer to witches and witchcraft. The meaning of witch has varied over the centuries, from a nadir of evil during the Salem Witch trials to the modern colloquial use to refer to an ugly, unpleasant old woman or a wonderfully attractive woman.
Witches too have been appearing in fiction for generations, though usually evil, as in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis or the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, Some, however, have been noble and good. In general though witches have not enjoyed the prestige or good will that wizards did. They instead were targets of witch hunts, often drowned, burned, or otherwise tortured into submission, recanting their alleged association with the Devil, and giving up evil
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Answer:
“Wizard” is from an old word that just meant “wise man,” but it gradually came to mean a magician, and usually one who had obtained his magical skills through study.
“Witch” is from an Anglo-Saxon word that meant roughly “pagan,” and was often applied to old women who had learned various useful tricks — herbal remedies, ways to deal with injured livestock, and so on — just by living long enough to pick them up and remember them. This was seen as magic, and the medieval church didn’t approve of anyone doing magic other than priests, so witches got a lot of grief and were accused of consorting with demons to gain their powers. The fact that the Bible says “thou shalt not suffer a witch to live…”
Well, actually, it doesn’t say that; the Hebrew word that got translated as “witch” really meant something more like “poisoner,” but the translators couldn’t agree on an exact English equivalent and went with “witch,” much to the detriment of lots of harmless old women trying to get by selling herbal potions.
Anyway, the result is that “witch” usually means someone who knows nature magic, while a wizard is someone who knows scholarly magic. Witches were often accused of consorting with demons, but medieval wizards were the ones who really did try to summon and command demons. (We have some of their surviving books on the subject, where most witches appear to have been illiterate.)
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Answer:
Wizards
The word wizard is from Middle English, a combination of wise and –ard, in the sense of a philosopher or sage. In the middle of the 16th century the word became a term for someone practicing witchcraft, when there was little difference between magic and wisdom. In the early 17th century it evolved to refer to anyone with impressive knowledge or wisdom in some area. We now talk about computer programming wizards, a math whiz (derived from wizard), and wizardly acts.
Wizards have been running around fantasy fiction for generations. From Ursula Le Guin’s famed novel The Wizard of Earthsea to Gandalf and his brethren in The Lord of the Rings, sagely men with beards, hats, and staffs or wands are well known, loved or feared or both, and a part of the modern canon. They all ultimately seem to stem from Merlin, the wizard/sorcerer of the Arthurian tales, though Merlin appears and behaves differently depending on which version of the tales you read or see.
Witches
Witch comes from Old English wicca (for a man) or wicce (for a woman), both meaning magic user. This makes the modern use of Wicca a bit peculiar, given that women apply it to themselves to refer to witches and witchcraft. The meaning of witch has varied over the centuries, from a nadir of evil during the Salem Witch trials to the modern colloquial use to refer to an ugly, unpleasant old woman or a wonderfully attractive woman.
Witches too have been appearing in fiction for generations, though usually evil, as in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis or the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, Some, however, have been noble and good. In general though witches have not enjoyed the prestige or good will that wizards did. They instead were targets of witch hunts, often drowned, burned, or otherwise tortured into submission, recanting their alleged association with the Devil, and giving up evil