the other day i looked up the etymologies of every word i could think of that meant "male (or gender-neutral) magic-user" and the results were way more interesting than i expected so here they are in a thread:
Conversation
1. "wizard" is pretty straightforward: "wise-ard", like a drunkard or a dullard. a wizard is someone who is wise. neato
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wizard
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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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Replying to
etymonline.com/search?q=sorce i think it's just some guy running a website that collates from whatever sources he likes. it's my first go-to for etymology.