Wicca

A twentieth-century borrowing of Old English wiċċa (“male witch”), from Proto-West Germanic *wikkō (“sorcerer”); mispronounced as /ˈwɪkə/ instead of the correct /ˈwit.t͡ʃɑ/. The modern use of the term was introduced first as Wica,^[1] mentioned briefly in chapter 10 of Gerald Gardner's book Witchcraft Today (1954), as a collective noun ("the Wica"), allegedly used as a self-designation by practitioners of witchcraft. The spelling Wicca, again as a collective noun, was introduced and popularized by Gerald Gardner's later book, The Meaning of Witchcraft (1959).

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɪkə/
• Rhymes: -ɪkə
• Homophone: wicker (non-rhotic)

Wicca

1. A neopagan religion that was first popularized by books written in 1949, 1954, and 1959 by Englishman Gerald Gardner, involving the worship of a horned male god and a moon goddess, the observance of eight Sabbats, and the performance of various rituals.

• Gardnerian Wicca, Alexandrian Wicca, Celtic Wicca, Dianic Wicca, Eclectic Wicca, Faery Wicca, Odyssean Wicca, Reclaiming Wicca, Seax-Wicca, Trojan Wicca

• (religions) religion; agnosticism,‎ Asatru,‎ atheism,‎ Ayyavazhi,‎ Baháʼí Faith,‎ Bon,‎ Buddhism,‎ Cao Dai,‎ Cheondoism,‎ Christianity,‎ deism,‎ Druidry,‎ Druze,‎ Eckankar,‎ Heathenry,‎ Hinduism,‎ Islam,‎ Jainism,‎ Jediism,‎ Judaism,‎ Kimbanguism,‎ Odinism,‎ paganism,‎ Pastafarianism,‎ Raëlism,‎ Rastafarianism,‎ Rodnovery,‎ Romuva,‎ Samaritanism,‎ Sanamahism,‎ Shinto,‎ Sikhism,‎ Taoism,‎ Tengrism,‎ Thelema,‎ Unitarian Universalism,‎ Wicca,‎ Yahwism,‎ Yazidism,‎ Yoruba,‎ Zoroastrianism ^{(Category: en:Religion) [edit]}

• Wiccan, Wiccanism, Wiccanist
• Wiccanize, Wiccanizing
• Wiccaphobia, wiccaphobe