The Word “Witch” In Old European Languages
Over the centuries, the word witch has undergone a massive transformation in meaning and cultural significance.
While first created and weaponized in the 15th century as an accusatory term used to kill thousands, if not millions, of women, the word is taking on new meaning in our modern times.
Women everywhere are reclaiming the word witch as a symbol of their sovereignty to their truth and wild feminine power.
Women are innately DEEPLY connected to the spiritual realms. It is one of our greatest gifts, and we all have it innately.
We are literal portals as our wombs bring souls into form. Even women without wombs still hold this power in a spiritual sense, whether they are aware of it or not.
Part of why women were demonized is because we hold a mysterious spiritual power and because it has been feared by those who cannot understand it.
It wasn't "witches" who were burned — it was women. Healing the Witch Wound isn't about witchcraft; it's about healing the ways that we still hold back our feminine power... for once, it was dangerous to be seen, be heard, and let our magic be seen.
In old European languages, the word “witch” actually meant seer, knower, and
wise woman.
Old European words for “Witch”
Norse völva "seeress, sybil, witch, or wand-bearer"
Welsh gwelet, “seer,” and Old Irish velvet, later fili, filed, banfilé, “poet, seer.”
The old Celtic root *wel-, “to see,” comes from the root of Indic Veda, “knowledge.”
English cunning woman is based on the same ancient root of “knowing”
Norse vísendakona literally “wise woman” and vítka “sorceress” derived from the root of seeing and knowing
The Russian healer-name znakharka means “a woman who knows”
Latin saga “wisewoman” survived in French as sage-femme
Finnish tietäjä is an ungendered term for “knower.”
The more common Finnish word for “witch” is noita (again, not gendered) which is closely related to noaidi, the Sámi title for a shaman.
Irish cailleach feasa "wise old woman" and ban feasa "wise woman"
In Russian she is vyed’ma, in Polish wiedzma, and in southern Slavic tongues, vyeshchitsa or vedavica: all meaning “knower.”
Norse fjölkynngi “of manifold knowledge”
Latin sortiaria "one who reads or influences fate, fortune" based on sors meaning "destiny," "oracular response," and "lots"
"The oldest words for 'witch' in European languages emphasize their spiritual gifts: powers of prophecy, divination, and incantation; of healing, herbal knowledge, shapeshifting and shamanic flight. Others described them in language relating to Wisdom, Fate, and the Mysteries.”
Source: “Witches and Pagans: Women in European Folk Religion, 700-1100” by Max Dashu
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