witchmonger

English

Etymology

From witch +‎ monger.

Noun

witchmonger (plural witchmongers)

1. (uncommon) One who has dealings with witches.
   • 1584, Reginald Scot, The Discouerie of Witchcraft: Wherein the Lewde Dealing of Witches and Witchmongers is Notablie Detected [...]:

     [see title]

   • 2011 June 30, Philip C. Almond, England's First Demonologist: Reginald Scot and 'The Discoverie of Witchcraft', Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

     [...] to suggest that they may be interpolations by ‘some fond papist or witchmonger.’ And, on the principle of ‘set a witchmonger to catch a witchmonger’, he cited the French Calvinist demonologist, Lambert Daneau, as a denier of that which ‘S. Augustine and Apuleus doe credibly wryte,’ namely ‘that Sorcerers can chaunge men into other formes […]’

Derived terms

• witchmongering

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.