linguistic:voice_change
Etymology

The word is over a thousand years old: Old English formed the compound wiccecræft from wicce ('witch') and cræft ('craft'). The masculine form was wicca ('male sorcerer').

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, wicce and wicca were probably derived from the Old English verb wiccian, meaning 'to practice witchcraft'. Wiccian has a cognate in Middle Low German wicken (attested from the 13th century). The further etymology of this word is problematic. It has no clear cognates in other Germanic languages outside of English and Low German, and there are numerous possibilities for the Indo-European root from which it may have derived.

Another Old English word for 'witch' was hægtes or hægtesse, which became the modern English word " hag " and is linked to the word " hex ". In most other Germanic languages, their word for 'witch' comes from the same root as these; for example German Hexe and Dutch heks.

In colloquial modern English, the word witch is particularly used for women. A male practitioner of magic or witchcraft is more commonly called a ' wizard ', or sometimes, 'warlock'. When the word witch is used to refer to a member of a neo-pagan tradition or religion (such as Wicca), it can refer to a person of any gender.