witchcraft
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English [edit]
Etymology [edit]
From Old English wiċċecræft, compound of wiċċe and cræft (“craft”).
Noun [edit]
witchcraft (usually uncountable; plural witchcrafts)
- The practice of witches; magic, sorcery or the use supernatural powers to influence or predict events.
- 1387, John Trevisa (transl.), Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden Monachi Cestrensis chapter XLIV [1]:
- And in þat ilond is sortilege and wicchecraft i-vsed. For wommen þere selliþ schipmen wynde, as it were i-closed vnder þre knottes of þrede, so þat þe more wynd he wol haue, he wil vnknette þe mo knottes.
- In illa insula vigent sortilegia, superstitiones, atque præstigia; nam mulieres ibidem navigaturis ventum vendunt, quasi sub tribus fili nodis inclusum; ita ut, sicut plus de vento habere voluerint, plures nodos evolvant. (Ranulf Higden c. 1342, Polychronicon)
- And in þat ilond is sortilege and wicchecraft i-vsed. For wommen þere selliþ schipmen wynde, as it were i-closed vnder þre knottes of þrede, so þat þe more wynd he wol haue, he wil vnknette þe mo knottes.
- 1387, John Trevisa (transl.), Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden Monachi Cestrensis chapter XLIV [1]:
Translations [edit]
the practice of witches
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