2. "magician" obviously derives from "magic" and so does "magus". "magic" is itself pretty interesting: wiktionary says the likely root means "to be able to, to help; power"
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/magic
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3. "sorcerer" apparently derives from a root meaning "oracular response" which further derives from a root meaning "to sort"! hmmmmmm
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sorcerer
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4. "warlock" - this one is *super* interesting to me. apparently it means "traitor" or "truce-breaker"! a warlock is a traitor to (the christian) god!!!
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5. "enchanter" - derives from a root meaning "to sing; to consecrate with spells" which i love, wow. an incantation is a *holy song*!
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/enchanter
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6. "conjurer" - the root of "conjure" is "to swear together; conspire", i guess because a conjurer is someone who summons and conspires with demons and so forth? sweet
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/conjure
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7. "spellcaster" (not really gendered but w/e) - the root of "spell" means "story" and the root of "cast" means "to throw". a spellcaster is someone who throws stories 😂
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/spell
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cast
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8. "druid" - oh fuck this one is so good. "oak-knower"!!! fuck!!! can an etymology slap? this etymology slaps
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/druid
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9. "thaumaturge" - surprisingly straightforward, "miracle worker"
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/thaumatur
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10. "necromancer" - "necro" means dead, pretty straightforward, the interesting thing is that "-mancy" means divination!
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-mancy
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11. for completeness let's also investigate "witch" - derived from the female form of a word for male (or gender-neutral?) magic-user that we don't use the male form of anymore, "further etymology uncertain" but maybe something to do with divination?
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/witch
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the etymologies suggest different conceptions of magic in a way that really tickles me. magic is: wisdom, power, betraying god, divination, holy song, consorting with demons, storytelling, knowing the trees, working miracles
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i love this thread QC if theres one thing i suggest invesying in its a paper etymological dictionary
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I’m quite happy with etymonline.com and their iOS app.
Used it religiously when I was teaching TOEFL.
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Cool thread! If you forgive me an alternative interpretation, it's about chant meaning song. It does mean that, but in Latin song and chant are the same word (cantare), so you could argue enchantment comes more directly from the meaning of chant than the meaning of song.
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yeah i figured a lot of these would be creative misinterpretations 😅 i like “chant” and “song” being the same word too that’s like a whole thing in itself
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i like how together these would make for a bunch of different magic-using classes *_*
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right??? lots of food for thought here for fiction and games etc, esp. for a conception of magic not centered on combat
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very cool! Im in the middle of HP and the methods of rationality after you mentioned it briefly in robot friends :)