Definition of Witch. Are you A Witch?

Most of my clothes are black. My favorite holiday is Halloween. Given the right company, I will happily chatter on about astrology, magic, herbs, and divination. So perhaps it is not surprising that occasionally i am asked whether I'm a witch.My response is to say that my answer depends upon the inquirer's definition of witchcraft. Inevitably this leads to frustration on the part of the inquirer: they think they've asked a straightforward, simple question because everyone knows the definition of "witch". I have experienced many unpleasant encounters with those whose definitions of witch or witchcraft did not correspond with my own. I've learned that what constitutes witchcraft is dependent upon the eye of its beholder.

Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary:

WITCH (n. ME wicche fr. OE wicca, masc. wizard and wicce fem. witch; akin to MHG wicken to bewitch, OE wigle divination, OHG wih holy-more at victim)

1a. Wizard, Sorcerer

1b. a woman practicing the black arts: SORCERESS

1c. one supposed to possess supernatural powers esp. by compact with devil or familiar

1d. or Witcher: Dowser

2. an ugly old woman: HAG

3. a charming or alluring woman

Which witch do you supposed me to be?

Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary WITCH

1. one that is credited with usually malignant supernatural powers; especially: a woman practicing usually black witchcraft often with the aid of a devil or familiar:

SORCERESS-compare WARLOCK

2. an ugly old woman: HAG

3. a charming or alluring girl or woman

4. a practitioner of Wicca

Other references suggest a narrower definition of witchcraft.

Funk and Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend

WITCH

A person who practices sorcery; a sorcerer or sorceress; one having supernatural powers in the natural world, especially to work evil and usually by association with evil spirits or the Devil: formerly applied to both men and women but now generally restricted to women. Belief in witches exists in all lands, from earliest times to the present day.

Or a really virulent definition of witch by Martin Luther.

Witches are the devil's whores who steal milk, raise storms, ride on goats or broomsticks, lame or maim people, torture babies in their cradles, change things into different shapes to that a human being seems to be a cow or an ox and force people into love and immorality.

Perhaps not! Author Raymond Buckland, a pivotal figure in the evolution of modern Wicca and an authority on magic, divination, and witchcraft, acknowledges the very same etymology quoted in the dictionaries yet proposes a positive understand of the word witch.

The actual meaning of the word Witch is linked to "wisdom" and is the same root as "to have wit" and "to know". It comes from the Anglo-Saxon wicce (f) or wicca (m) meaning "wise one", witches being both female and male.

Am I a witch, well that depends on which definition you are referring to.

Credit to Judika Illes