witch doctor
See also: witchdoctor
English edit
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈwɪtʃ ˌdɒktə/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈwɪtʃ ˌdɑktɚ/
Audio (AU) (file) - Hyphenation: witch doc‧tor
Noun edit
witch doctor (plural witch doctors)
- A person (often male) who is believed to ward off witchcraft and heal through magical powers; a shaman.
- 1718, Francis Hutchinson, “The Tryal before My Lord Chief Baron Hale”, in An Historical Essay Concerning Witchcraft. […], London: Printed for R. Knaplock, […], and D. Midwinter, […], →OCLC, page 110:
- [T]he ſaid Dorothy Durent, having been with a Witch-Doctor, acknowledges upon Oath, that by his Advice, ſhe hang'd up her Child's Blanket in the Chimney, found a Toad in it at Night, had put it into the Fire, and held it there tho' it made a great and horrible Noiſe, and flaſht like Gunpowder, and went off like a Piſtol, and then became inviſible, and that by this the Priſoner was ſcorch'd and burn'd lamentably.
- 1820, J[ohn] C. Knowlson, “The Felon”, in The Complete Cow-leech, or Cattle-Doctor; […], Otley, Yorkshire: Printed for the author by T. F. Bristow, […], →OCLC, page 104:
- Some people are so foolish as to go to a witch-doctor when they have Cows in this complaint [prematurely parting with their unborn calves]:—they give him some money, and he tells them some frivolous tale, such as that some person that wishes them bad luck, or looks upon them with an evil eye, [...]
- 1893, South African Law Journal, volume 10, Cape Town: Juta & Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 219:
- At that consultation, according to the habit of a witch-doctor, he divined and announced the occasion of their attendance, and indicated the complainant, Mdungazwe, as the wizard who had caused Ranise to suffer.
- 1958 April 1, David Seville [pseudonym; Ross Bagdasarian Sr.] (lyrics and music), “Witch Doctor”, in The Alvin Show:
- I told the witch doctor I was in love with you / And then the witch doctor he told me what to do
- 1971, W. G. Jilek, “From Crazy Witch Doctor to Auxiliary Psychotherapist: The Changing Image of the Medicine Man”, in Psychiatria Clinica, volume 4, number 4, Basel, New York, N.Y.: S[amuel] Karger, →OCLC, abstract, page 200:
- Review of the literature cited in the bibliography of the present paper left this author with the impression that there is indeed a very widespread institution variously labelled by Western observers with epithets such as medicine-man, shaman, witch-doctor, native healer, or with indigenous terms such as angakok (Eskimo), or mganga (Swahili).
- 1982, Sudhir Kakar, “Other Shamans”, in Shamans, Mystics and Doctors: A Psychological Inquiry into India and Its Healing Traditions, New York, N.Y.: Knopf, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Knopf, 2013, →ISBN:
- In much of popular Western literature, the non-Western professional who attends to the relief of distress and alleviation of anxiety in his society is known by many names, none of them exactly respectful. He is a medicine man or a witch doctor, native healer or voodoo sorcerer—the "quack," so to speak, never the "doctor."
- 1993, Hama Tuma, The Case of the Socialist Witchdoctor and Other Stories (African Writers Series), Oxford, Oxfordshire, Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, →ISBN, page 36:
- The man being led into the Cage did not strike me as a witchdoctor. Slim and tall, he was a middle-aged man with a fuzzy Afro which made him look even younger.
Alternative forms edit
Hypernyms edit
Hyponyms edit
Coordinate terms edit
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
person believed to ward off witchcraft and heal through magic
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Further reading edit
- witch doctor on Wikipedia.Wikipedia