spaewifen.
Scottish.
A female fortune-teller; a sybil; a witch.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > expectation > foresight, foreknowledge > prediction, foretelling > inspired prophecy > [noun] > a prophet or seer > female
prophetessc1350
Sibyl1589
vaticinatress1693
spie-woman1744
seeress1766
spaewife1773
spae-woman1828
volva1889
the mind > mental capacity > expectation > foresight, foreknowledge > prediction, foretelling > fortune-telling > [noun] > fortune-teller > female
Sibyl1589
spie-woman1744
spaewife1773
spaer1820
spae-woman1828
spae-wright1876
1773 R. Fergusson Poems 118 What cairds and tinklers come..An' spae-wives fenzying to be dumb.
1818 W. Scott Heart of Mid-Lothian xiv, in Tales of my Landlord 2nd Ser. IV. 313 Many remembered that Annaple Bailzou wandered through the country as a beggar and fortune-teller, or spae-wife.
1872 C. Kingsley Little Baltung in Poems xxvi Oh a spae-wife laid a doom on me.
1876 A. Laing Lindores Abbey xxvi. 382 He was going to consult a spaewife in the neighbourhood.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1913; most recently modified version published online June 2021).
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n.1773