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Name: Hedge Witch Gulphphunger Spaawne of the House of the Gentle Lion
Race: Elothean
Guild: Warrior Mage
Gender: Male
Age: 33
~player of Gulphphunger
>>Witch is not a gendered title, a witch can be female or male.
Yeah...well, there's literal, colloquial, regional, and historical languages to consider. Not formal categories, mind you (at least to my knowledge, but I'm just a musician), but each distinct in its own right.
Literally, "witch" typically refers to a person, male or female, who deals with magic, especially bad or evil magic. Mind you, I'm not going into a historical plotting of how the word is used; I'm just trusting prior knowledge and cross-referencing a couple of dictionaries. In fact, the Oxford English Dictionary specifies that a witch is a woman, but since every dictionary doesn't, I'm willing to keep it gender-neutral for now.
Colloquially, a witch can mean a few things, several of which seem to lean toward the female (old hag; a euphemism for a colloquially derogatory word that rhymes with "witch" that is considered to be even less pleasant, etc.; the practicers of magics on Charmed or Buffy ).
I'm not familiar with any regional variations in the meaning of the word, but there might well be. I'm not a linguist; I'm just a musician.
Historically, as I understand the etymology from such respected sources as More Dictionaries, Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Generic-Others-That-I-Haven't-Read-In-A-Decade-Or-More, the word "witch" is a combination of the masculine and feminine forms of the same root, wicc~. Interestingly enough, there are modern translators who translate the male form, "wicca," as "wizard." They translate the female, "wicce," as "witch." Again, I'm not claiming this is a detailed study or anything; I'm just putting together the pieces I've found.
Long story short...to say that "witch" is not gendered is not entirely accurate. It really depends on the context in which it's used and whose dictionary you read. I just thought it was kind of funny, as I was thinking of a colloquial definition.
/fin
//Sorry for the verbose reply. I just wrote it on a whim.
///Sometimes I like to put slashes at the end of a post, with little quips after them.
////Sometimes it works, but sometimes it's overused. I learned it from reading fark.com.
/////This is turning into quite the non-sequitor. I should go home now.
~player of Gulphphunger
Yeah...well, there's literal, colloquial, regional, and historical languages to consider. Not formal categories, mind you (at least to my knowledge, but I'm just a musician), but each distinct in its own right.
Literally, "witch" typically refers to a person, male or female, who deals with magic, especially bad or evil magic. Mind you, I'm not going into a historical plotting of how the word is used; I'm just trusting prior knowledge and cross-referencing a couple of dictionaries. In fact, the Oxford English Dictionary specifies that a witch is a woman, but since every dictionary doesn't, I'm willing to keep it gender-neutral for now.
Colloquially, a witch can mean a few things, several of which seem to lean toward the female (old hag; a euphemism for a colloquially derogatory word that rhymes with "witch" that is considered to be even less pleasant, etc.; the practicers of magics on Charmed or Buffy ).
I'm not familiar with any regional variations in the meaning of the word, but there might well be. I'm not a linguist; I'm just a musician.
Historically, as I understand the etymology from such respected sources as More Dictionaries, Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Generic-Others-That-I-Haven't-Read-In-A-Decade-Or-More, the word "witch" is a combination of the masculine and feminine forms of the same root, wicc~. Interestingly enough, there are modern translators who translate the male form, "wicca," as "wizard." They translate the female, "wicce," as "witch." Again, I'm not claiming this is a detailed study or anything; I'm just putting together the pieces I've found.
Long story short...to say that "witch" is not gendered is not entirely accurate. It really depends on the context in which it's used and whose dictionary you read. I just thought it was kind of funny, as I was thinking of a colloquial definition.
/fin
//Sorry for the verbose reply. I just wrote it on a whim.
///Sometimes I like to put slashes at the end of a post, with little quips after them.
////Sometimes it works, but sometimes it's overused. I learned it from reading fark.com.
/////This is turning into quite the non-sequitor. I should go home now.
~player of Gulphphunger
