black witchn.
/ˌblak ˈwɪtʃ/, U.S. /ˌblæk ˈwɪtʃ/ 1. A witch who practises black magic; one who uses witchcraft for malicious purposes. Opposed to white witch.
ΚΠ
1645 J. Cleveland Char. London Diurnall 1 It differs..as a black Witch doth from a white one, whose office is to unravell her inchantments.
1730 W. Forbes Inst. Law Scotl. II. i. ii. 34 The bad Witch, commonly called the black Witch..is one who, by a League with the Devil, is assisted by him to work Mischief.
1862 Times 25 Sept. 6/3 The black witch hurt only the body and the estate.
1972 ‘Zolar’ Hist. Astrol. viii. 140 The white witch practiced only healing arts: she removed warts, cured fits, counteracted spells laid on cattle by bad or ‘black’ witches.
2010 Sun (Nexis) 12 Oct. 2 There's no such things as white or black witches.
2. The smooth-billed ani, Crotophaga ani, a noisy and gregarious bird of the cuckoo family having blue-black plumage and a black bill.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > birds > perching birds > order Cuculiformes (cuckoos, etc.) > [noun] > family Cuculidae > member of genus Crotophaga > crotophaga ani
savannah bird1694
savannah blackbird1756
keel-bill1811
black witch1837
tick-bird1850
tick-eater1903
1837 A. Halliday W. Indies xiii. 220 (table) Ani, or Black Witch, Bald-headed Brown Crow of Guiana.
1875 Contemp. Rev. 26 769 The bird who is the great ‘prophet of evils’ is the ‘black witch,’ or ‘old witch,’ Crotophaga ani.
1931 H. B. Eadie Lagooned in Virgin Islands xxxvi. 379 One warm windless night..Ann and I were sitting on the verandah watching the grotesque fluttering of a pair of black witches before they finally pitched into some bushes to roost.
2005 R. B. Payne Cuckoos 174/1 Smooth-billed Ani Crotophaga ani... Other names: Black Witch, Tick Bird, Savanna Blackbird.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2021; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
<
n.1645