Witcheries

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A collection of magical practices or sorcery typically associated with witches
2. The art or practice of performing supernatural feats often involving spells and enchantments
3. Various acts or techniques of witchcraft used for enchanting or bewitching individuals or objects

Etymology: Witcheries is simply the plural of "witchery," and the history of the root is older than the suffix. The base word traces to Old English "wiċċe," which carried the sense of a sorcerer or wise person, and it became the modern "witch" in Middle English as "wicche." The Old English form is itself tied to a Proto-Germanic root, so the word has been part of the language for well over a thousand years before anyone attached a suffix to it. The noun "witchery" was built in English by adding the suffix "-ery" to "witch." That suffix is a fairly productive one, borrowed through Old French from Latin "-aria," which turned a noun for a person or trade into a noun for its practice, goods, or place, as in "bakery" or "slavery." Applied to "witch," it produced a word for the whole body of witchcraft rather than any single spell. Its Middle English form appeared as "-erie" before the modern spelling settled.

Synonyms: sorcery, magic