| Typology Witch |
| Total Entries 47 |
| Representative Spider Widow |
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“Witch”, like “Wizard”, is a word that is sometimes used to name a specific kind of magic user, usually female. The word, witch, is, as “Wicca” notes, derived from the Old English wicce, for “female magic-user”. That connection to femininity sometimes makes witchcraft into a “Gender-Restricted Ability”, and sometimes not. Given the trope of “Wicked Witch” and similar portrayals, “witch” may or may not also be associated with evil female magic users in a work, while “mage” or “magician” is used for magic users in general. This trope, like the other “Our Monsters Are Different” tropes, is about how the term “witch” is used for specifically designating certain groups of beings. In the case of witches, they are usually humans, or at least look like it. The “Sub-Trope” of “Witch Classic” notes how broad and widespread the concept of a witch is, since “witchcraft beliefs — the folkloric that people work malicious magic on their neighbors — are found in virtually every culture”, but “Classic” means the stereotypical Western idea, for witches that have a combination of “Robe and Wizard Hat”, “Flying Broomstick”, “Familiar” or similar, some connection to femininity, nature, and the number 3, and a “Magic Cauldron” and potion-based witchcraft… Which has its own sub-tropes, of “Cute Witch”, “Hot Witch”, and “Wicked Witch”, the last of which is about witches that are clearly presenting as evil, in obvious/stereotypical villain fashion… Other sub-tropes of the general “witch” concept, are “All Witches Have Cats”… “Burn the Witch!”… “Good Witch Versus Bad Witch”… “Salem Is Witch Country”… “The Weird Sisters”… “Widow Witch”… “The Witch Hunter”… ~ Our Witches Are Different – TV Tropes
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