athame
nounEtymology
From French athamé in a 1929 passage from É.-J. Grillot de Givry (see 1931 citation below), apparently from Medieval Latin artavus (“quill-sharpening knife”). Artavus was also mistranslated into artauo in an Italian manuscript. The arthame was conflated with the cortel nero (“black knife”) by Grillot de Givry, and that conflation was passed on to Gerald Gardner (whose 1954 book Witchcraft Today introduced Wicca to the public).
- derived from athamé
Definitions
A ceremonial pointed knife or dagger, used especially in Wicca and other neopagan…
A ceremonial pointed knife or dagger, used especially in Wicca and other neopagan traditions and typically having a black handle with magical symbols on it.
- She is moving with a regal gait, grasping the arthame, or magic knife.
- Agia was quicker, making a cut at my neck with an athame before his weapon was free of the scabbard.
- The athame is a black-handled ritual knife—one of the most common distinguishing marks of the Neopagan Witch.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for athame. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA