water witch

English

Etymology

Grebes are so called due to their ability to evade hunters and predators by disappearing underwater. Storm petrels are so called due to the folk belief that their arrival foretells approaching storms. Both birds also sometimes walk on water.

Noun

water witch (plural water witches)

  1. A grebe:
    • 1914, Arthur A Allen, "At home with a Hell-Diver". in Bird-Lore, volume XVI, number 4:
      […] I knew that another pair of Grebes had chosen this secluded pond for their home. Careful search revealed only a deserted or incompleted nest, and I continued until I came to a weedy stretch. Examining it with binoculars, before entering, as it was quite open, I espied another of these elusive water-witches upon its nest.
    • 1920, The Nature Library, page 10:
      The grebes and loons are not edible, […] nevertheless, the bird is often hunted, although the sportsman finds it a wary victim, for there is no bird in the world more difficult to shoot than a "water-witch." One instant it will be swimming […] It is amazing how long a grebe can remain submerged.
    1. In particular, the dabchick (little grebe).
      • 1902, Florence Merriam Bailey, Handbook of Birds of the Western United States: Including the Great Plains, Great Basin, Pacific Slope, and Lower Rio Grande Valley, page 9:
        ... bird was never seen again, dead or alive. There was a mystery about it , and when some one older and wiser than he told him it was a water witch or hell diver, the mystery was only half solved. Where did it go? How could it stay […] Fortunately for the dabchick, […]
    2. In particular, the pied-billed grebe.
      • 1901, The Conservative, page 10:
        The Hell Diver seen was probably the Pied Bill Grebe, […] it surely is a water witch and has disappeared.
      • 1989, Joan C. Brown, A Taxonomic Analysis of Avian Faunal Remains from Three Archaeological Sites in Marina Del Rey, Los Angeles County, California:
        ... Grebes are highly aquatic expert divers but labored fliers. […] a "water-witch" [Blanchan 1902: 12]. The Pied-billed Grebe is represented at CA-44.
      • 2012, Steve Maslowski, Wings on the Water: The Great Gallery of Ducks, Geese, and Loons, Ampry Publishing, LLC, →ISBN, page 234:
        ... my first nest of a "water witch," the pied-billed grebe. What's a grebe? Scientists would like the answer to that one. There are at least 20 species of grebes found around the world. All are birds incredibly adapted to aquatic environments […]
  2. (UK, dialect) The storm petrel.
    • 1874, Alfred Edmund Brehm, Bird-life, tr. by H.M. Labouchere and W. Jesse, page 866:
      Ten or fifteen dark little birds […] these are "Mother Carey's chickens," the "water-witches," Stormy Petrels, which are so familiar to the eye of the sailor, and the sight of which he dreads so much; […]
    • 1915, Herbert Randall, “Song of the Water-Witch (The Stormy-Petrel)”, in Cape Cod Magazine: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Cape Cod Interests, page 8:
      [see chapter title, viz.:] Song of the Water-Witch (The Stormy-Petrel)
    • c. 1917, Royal Dixon, The human side of birds, page 215:
      There is no doubt that the stormy petrel has learned to imitate the motion of the waves, flying with motions not unlike those of certain fish. […] These strange little "water-witches" or Mother Carey's chickens are familiar to all sea-travellers.
  3. (chiefly fantasy) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: a witch who lives in, controls, is able to dowse or find, or is otherwise connected with, water.
    • 1890, Katharine Pyle, “The Sea Princess”, in St. Nicholas: An Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks, page 824:
      […] plays with the stormy petrel, / And answers the sea-gull's call. […] the water-witch, gray and ancient, / And hearing the tales she tells.
    • 2018 July 5, Patrick Ameye, The Improved Original, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 218:
      The water-witches of Meterik inhabit the islands. There are fifteen of them. They argue all the time over minutiae. They throw magic spells at each other for fun. Normally they show not too much interest in humans. That changed […]
    • 2019 May 21, JoAnn Franklin, Bring the Rain: A Novel, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:
      "... even if he wanted to, he couldn't hold that rod steady." I smiled , remembering the water witches of my youth. They were mystical, mysterious people. Only one of them hit good clean water every time and plenty of it, and […]

Alternative forms

References

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