13 Strange, Obsolete Terms for Witches and Warlocks

Witches have become a classic symbol of Halloween, right alongside candy apples and trick-or-treating. Witch hunts have also made their way into political discussions, making the term witch feel overexposed. But luckily, there’s a wealth of rare and ancient terms for witches from history and around the globe. Add these to your spellbook and share them with your coven.

1. Sorceress

What truly defines a witch? Magic, of course, but not the kind you’d see in a magician’s show—think dark, malevolent sorcery. That’s why the term sorceress has been associated with witches since the 1300s. In William Pater’s 1885 novel Marius the Epicurean, he uses it this way: “In one very remote village lives the sorceress Pamphile.” Sorceress is just one of many variants of sorcery found in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), which also includes terms like sorcering, sorcerous, sorcerously, sorcerist, and sorcerize.

2. Enchantress

This term has been in use since the 1300s and was first recorded by poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Initially, Enchantress referred specifically to witches, but over time it came to describe women who are captivating or mesmerizing, even in a non-magical sense.

3. Hellcat

The OED describes this term, which emerged in the early 17th century, as “An evil person, resembling a creature from hell; a monster.” Less than a decade after it was first coined, hellcat was already being used to refer to witches (which makes sense, given the long-standing connection between cats and witches). A hellcat can also describe any wild or wicked woman or girl, even those who don't have a cauldron.

4. Wise Woman

First appearing in the late 1300s, wise woman is a more positive term for witches or women with magical abilities. According to the OED, it referred to “harmless or beneficent” individuals who fought against dark forces like illness and “malignant witchcraft.” By the 19th century, the term was also used for a far less eerie profession: midwives. A related term for a midwife is sage woman.

5. Lamia

If you're a fan of legendary creatures, the OED defines lamia as “A mythical creature thought to have the body of a woman, who preys on humans and sucks the blood of children.” (Of course, ‘fabulous’ here refers to its mythical nature.) The term also refers to witches and “she-demons.” Lamia is a Latin term that appears in some of the earliest English translations of the Bible. You might also recognize the creature from Sam Raimi’s 2009 film Drag Me to Hell.

6. Bewitcher

Since the 1500s, this term has been used to describe witches and other practitioners of sorcery. It evokes the title of Bewitched, and variations of the word are often used in a more gentle sense (without the need for an eye of newt), such as bewitching, which means “captivating or enchanting.”

7. Pythoness

Here’s another word with the -ess suffix, part of a trend that’s now quite outdated. The OED defines pythoness, a term dating back to the late 1300s, as “A woman believed to be possessed by a spirit and able to predict the future; a female soothsayer; a witch.” We owe this borrowed term to both French and Latin, as well as the age-old association of snakes with magic.

8. Weird

This version of weird is used as a noun—like, “Weirds like to turn men into frogs”—in contrast to the widely-used adjective that can describe nearly anything these days. The OED defines this sense of weird, which has been recorded since the 1600s, as “One who is believed or supposed to have the power to foresee and control future events; a witch or wizard, a soothsayer.” So, a group of sorcerers and witches might be referred to as “a group of weirds.” This usage fits closely with the weird sisters from Macbeth.

9. Baba Yaga

The OED defines Baba Yaga as “(the name of) a witch or female demon” featured in Russian and Slavic folklore. Baba Yaga also plays a significant role in the Hellboy comic book and other stories, and in most versions, she is known as a devourer of children. (Other terms for female demons, if needed, include she-demon, demoness, she-devil, or deviless.)

10. Hag

Although this term later came to describe—often in a sexist and ageist manner—women who are elderly and unattractive, its original 13th-century meaning was much darker: Back then, hag referred to a woman who associated with or even spoke to the devil. Crone, which emerged slightly later, has also been used in a similar context.

11. Witch-man

Men aren’t exempt from the world of witchcraft. Warlock—which had various meanings in Old English, including “traitor,” “villain,” and “Satan”—has been used to describe male witches since the 1400s, and witch-man has also appeared since the 1500s. The term still appears occasionally, like in Nigel Pennick’s 2011 book In Field and Fen: “The Witch-men described by Sternberg stuffed straw into their smocks to create the illusion of humped backs.”

12. and 13. Cunning Woman and Cunning Man

To be cunning means to possess cleverness and wisdom, but by the late 1500s, the word also referred to knowledge of magic or witchcraft. A cunning man is a wizard, and a cunning woman is a witch. An 1807 letter by Robert Southey mentions both: “A Cunning-Man, or a Cunning-Woman, as they are called, is to be found near every town.” Convenient, indeed.