Concept in Definition ABC

The etymological origin of the word witch is not known exactly. In fact, some specialists consider that it is of Nordic origin, while others maintain that it is a Germanic term and there are those who defend the thesis that she comes from the city of Brugis, the present city of Bruges.

The historical sense

To the margin from the origin of her as a word, a witch was a woman who was not afraid of God and who lived with full Liberty and leading a vicious life, especially in the sexual field. The witch as a historical figure is lost in a nebula of time and it is not possible to place her at a certain moment, but her prominence was reached in the time of the Inquisition. By then, witches were persecuted, as they engaged in suspicious practices of witchcraft. In this sense, witchcraft consisted of a series of actions destined to provoke evil in another person through some type of spell. On the other hand, epidemics or natural catastrophes were attributed to witches because there was no conscience on the patterns of nature and its scientific character.

Ancient societies and religions prohibited witchcraft under pain of death, about which we can find some references in the Old Testament

Christianity also fought witchcraft during the Middle Ages. This phenomenon also occurred in the United States in the seventeenth century and is known as the Salem witch episode.

This persecution against the alleged witches was based on strange behavior of these women (some Historians consider that they were due to hallucinations caused by some drug and other theories maintain that its conduct was related to religious fanaticism). In any case, that historical episode is the foundation of an idea that is still in use today, the witch hunt. Thus, a witch hunt is the persecution of some group despite the fact that there is no legal basis that justifies said persecution.

Other meanings of the term

The word witch can be used as an insult. In this way, if someone says that a woman looks like a witch she is referring to her physical appearance, probably her ugliness. Saying that a woman is a witch may equally have an appraisal moral.

The historical character has been used by fiction, so the literature and the movie theater they have turned to witches to embody evil, perversion and the sinister aspects of life.

The concept of witch is also related to the world of the paranormal or supernatural. Those who believe in witches maintain that these women have strange powers that allow them to know a part of reality that remains hidden from most.

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