Wicca

A twentieth-century borrowing of Old English wiċċa (“male witch”) (from Proto-West Germanic *wikkō (“sorcerer”)) with a spelling pronunciation. 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

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